Beverage Infusers

This roomy infuser held nearly double the amount of fruit of any other product, giving plain water the robust, bright flavor of whatever we put in. We liked that its oblong, clear plastic pitcher was large enough to hold drinks for a crowd but slim enough to fit in the refrigerator door. The model’s smart design comes with three interchangeable attachments: for infusing fruit, brewing tea, and keeping beverages cold.

While we liked that this clear plastic pitcher came with an ice column that could be used at the same time as the infuser to chill the drink, and water brewed in it did taste fruity, pouring from the pitcher often resulted in the lid falling off, splashing water everywhere.

This sleek glass carafe certainly had good looks, but the small and staggered circular holes in its infusing column produced weakly flavored water. Worse, the column failed to drain when removed from the pitcher, creating a leaky, drippy mess—a particular problem because the pitcher could not pour with the infuser still immersed.

Despite being too big to fit through the opening of most of our pitchers, this 3 1/2-inch-wide, ball-shaped plastic infuser had the smallest capacity of the products that we tested. Its round shape proved difficult to fill, squishing the fruit and keeping it from easily infusing into the surrounding liquid. No wonder beverages brewed with this infuser were weak and flavorless.