Want to add a note, the pictures of this teapot is misleading. I just ordered my Shin Cha and got it last week. To my dismay, instead of the tea strainer being 100% stainless, they now add a rubber cushion around the top lip of the opening and continues down the strainer about an inch into the inside of the teapot.
I ordered a second one just to verify this, and the 2nd teapot came with the same tea strainer. I called Bodum, and they said that this is the new design to prevent the strainer from breaking the teapot.
Well, although I'm a purist when it comes to NOT having plastic/rubber elements in my food/drinks, I decided to still keep this teapot. I just don't fill the water high enough for it to touch the rubber, and I don't think anyone would want to fill it that high anyways.
Glass teapots make brewing my lose tea to the perfect stregnth that much easier, so I can get it steeped to the perfect time by being able to look at the color of the tea, and not just going by the time...especially on 2nd brews. When the tea reaches just the right stregnth, I push down on the stopper, and it stops steeping. And when I'm ready for another pot the next day, I just reuse the same tea in the strainer from the day before, and its all ready to go, just pour hot water in it again.
This teapot also has an excellent pour...no drips anywhere! I really like that, and it holds enough water for at least 4 large cups of tea.
So I can overlook the rubber, but it does bother me a bit that its there, but i guess I'd rather have the cushion, than a broken teapot.