Is a "tea infuser" just a fancy-shmancy name for a teabag?

In my world, the “infuser” tends to be everything but a bag. Mesh tea balls, flow-through holey teaspoon, cute animal shaped ceramic things, stuff like that.

Google “tea infusers”, there are a bunch of pictures.

I normally use a stainless steel tea ball or other stainless mesh items that usually have a lid so the loose tea doesn’t escape into my cup. Upon seeing your Q, I headed over to Amazon to see what they have to offer. In most cases, I found the stainless steel mesh containers were the main infusers offered. Continuing to look, I did also find an empty unbleached paper mesh tea bag with 100 to a box that was also called an infuser. In my mind, it’s an expensive tea bag with a clip to hold it closed.

I don’t know what your friend meant to send you but I don’t think that they ordered what they thought they were ordering. Personally, I prefer the stainless mesh enclosure for my infuser. I find that I get a much more wholesome flavor than using a simple tea bag!!!

My personal favorite is the little glass teapot with the stainless infuser built into the pot It will make about 3 maybe 4 cups of tea at a time!!!

This is what I was sent linkSY300_QL70&dpSrc=srch

The Amazon description says “Infuser bags”. Interestingly, the box itself just says “Infuser”

In that particular case, @elbanditoroso, then yes, it is just fancy with some extra shmancy piled on top.

Usually it refers to something that’s not actually a bag and is made out of metal. At the moment I have a metal infuser and disposable bags for loose tea.

Yeah, I think “Tea Infuser Bags” refers to bags you would put in a (non-paper) infuser. The box just saying “infuser” and not having a non-paper infuser seems misleading to me.

I have several types of ‘infusers’ for my loose tea. I have some cute little birds that sit on the rim of my cup that dangles a small metal mesh spoon-size thing-y into the hot water. I, of course have a regular ‘tea ball’ and a spoon thing that holds loose tea. If you have none of those, you could always use a bit of cheese cloth to tie up your loose tea for brewing. Tea Anyone?