I started with tea balls to hold the loose tea (NO ADDITIVES FOR SURE). But not large enough. Look what I found:
I boil about 18 oz water in a glass pot in the microwave (the only thing I use that thing for btw) and make that much tea - and needed something larger to hold the amount of leaves necessary.
I found something to hold that much loose tea: a cylindrical open-at-top metal thing with holes and a net at the bottom and a little handle, rubberized, that came with a different tea pot, to hold the tea leaves and insert into the pot after boiling the water. And it’s easy to dump them out and clean.
The tea holder thing came with a nice top to it also, that I use with every cup of tea to keep it hot: metal with a rubberized rim - all ok for high heat.
I keep the extra tea hot in a thermos as I want it.
You can get larger tea ball or boil the tea and use a fine strainer. Another use for a tea ball is as a sachet de garnie(SP), when you have to use a spice bag less messy.