A local business opened a new branch about a week ago, and my husband
and I went by to have a look. They were giving away semi-hard clear
plastic waterbottles that were free and since we both drink a lot of
water and like to have it on hand we snagged a couple. Today I was
trying to get the smell of some green jasmine that I had put in mine out
of it by adding hot water...big mistake. The water was not even boiling
and the bottle just crumpled, literally melted from the hot water.

Yikes! So don't use water bottles to brew tea in if it requires hot
water is what I would recommend. At least check them with warm water and
see if they soften first.

Melinda

Melinda writes:

So the bottles they were giving away weren't Bisphenol A / polycarbonate
after all.

/Lew

Oof, not good hopefully no injuries. Even though there is the current
scare associated with them, it is actually safe to brew tea (even with
boiling water) in a real Nalgene brand hard plastic water bottle. Now
that they are not being made (but I still get my BPA fix from the
million other plastics I interact with daily), I'd have to say that a
bottle like a Sigg or other aluminum or stainless steel bottle is
probably best.

- Dominic

wikipedia 'science' makes BPA as a "estrogen receptor agonist"... i've
been drinking from plastic bottles for a couple decades and i haven't
developed any man boobs yet... well... its probably just fat...
hmmm...

i've also experienced the shrunken plastic bottle syndrome,
now i put the empty bottle in a pot (goes right up to the bottle's
neck) that's under continuous cold tap water, and fill the bottle with
the very hot water/tea/coffee... this seems to keep shrinkage to a
minimum.

Yeah, the plastics stuff is scary. It's probably best to stay away
from plastics when it comes to tea. Although, I used to use the hard,
clear plastic bottles for brewing tea in (because they were cheap).
Now, I'm thinking a similar designed cup - but made of glass would be
better. They have insulated walls, and they sell them for about 30
yuan at my local supermarket here in Fuzhou.

i sometimes use glass bottles for transporting hot tea, and i never had
problems with it yet...