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Hi - the tea strainers are pretty tall (almost as tall as your tea cup), so you can pour the water into the strainer in the cup and the water level will be beneath the top of the strainer. So the tea will brew, but the seeds won't float out of the strainer. They'll be under water and steeping just fine, but they'll stay in the strainer unless you pour in so much water that you overflow the strainer itself.
Pouring boiling water over the tea/fennel isn't the same as actually bringing a pot of water to boil, adding the tea/fennel, and continuing to boil it. The heat from the water is what will release the volatile oils - so that's why adding boiling water to your cup is what you want. But if you kept the fennel (or any other herbal tea) in a pot of water and just kept the whole thing boiling, that prolonged heat would dissipate all of the volatile oils and you'd lose the benefits.
I actually only mention the non-boiling thing because someone had written to me to say they were bringing a saucepan to boil on the stove, adding the fennel, and letting the whole pot boil away. Just think of the fennel seeds as a tea bag. You wouldn't brew tea by boiling a tea bag in a pot of water - you'd just pour boiling water over it into a cup. Same thing with the fennel, or any loose herbs. You don't want to COOK them - you just want to brew them.
Does that help? 
- H
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Ahhhh....that helps tons, actually. I swear I was NOT playing games with that question...I'd just never brewed "loose" tea before I got the fennel seeds (thus the crunch fennel tea, lol). Thank you, Heather, for being patient with me! 
I also just bought your Acacia fiber today, too - can't wait for it to get here!
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All this talk about tea strainers reminded me of my friend who drank a lot of tea (back in my coffee-drinking days). She fascinated me with this wonderful little basket-like strainer thingymabob. It was deep, so the basket went all the way to the bottom of the cup, and the bulk tea went inside the basket; she poured boiling water over the entire thing, then lifted the basket out of the cup. There was no way any solid particles could get through that basket -- and, bingo bango she had perfect tea!
As I recall, she got that little contraption at either Cost Plus or Pier I Imports. Think I'll haveta check them out......
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
Edited by Bevrs (01/09/04 01:02 PM)
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Pier 1? I'm there....LOVE that store and now have an excuse to go. Thanks, Bev!
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I for one am so glad you brought this up. Now I can
look for the tea ball and finally order some
fennel tea. Thanks for being the brave one!
val.... 
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