I have a french press pot, in which I make chai.

Note, it is a FRENCH press pot, not a freedom press pot, however amusing and open to satire that phrase might be. Get over it.

Note 2: Chai is Kenya tea. Actually, Chai is the swahili word for tea. And when I make chai, it means kenya tea with milk and sugar. The fact that Starbucks has hijacked this word to mean something else is not my problem, and I mostly choose to ignore it, but I just wanted to clarify.

Anyways, after a while using a french press pot, the screen tends to get grungy, and, since it is a fine wire mesh, it is very hard to clean it effectively.

Finally, I’ve figured out what to do. Burn it. Seems obvious in retrospect. Hold the mesh in a flame – preferably a hot blue flame, like that from a bunsen burner, a gas stove, or a lighter – and burn all the grunge off. Once the mesh gets red hot, that’s probably all the damage you can do. And, because of the composition of the mesh, you can usually hold the thing in your fingers while you’re doing this, as the mesh, for some reason, does not seem to conduct the head around much. Kinda cool, that.