Strain Well All-Purpose Mesh Colander
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$69.99
Regular price
$120.00
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I already own a colander — do I need a mesh one?
It depends entirely on whether anything you cook is smaller than a pea. A standard punched-hole colander handles pasta and potatoes and nothing else. Mesh is the one that catches the small stuff, and that's the whole argument.
| Choose | If this sounds like you |
|---|---|
| Yes, this is your colander | You rinse rice, quinoa or lentils. You wash berries and don't want them bruised against a hard rim. You've watched half a tin of chickpeas vanish down the plughole and said something you wouldn't repeat at the table. |
| Probably not | You cook spaghetti on Tuesdays and that's the extent of your draining life. Your existing colander is doing fine and you have no small grains in the cupboard. |
Most people keep both. The punched one lives under the sink for pasta night; the mesh one ends up on the drying rack permanently because it gets used every day.
Doesn't fine mesh just clog up?
Only if you let food dry in it. Everything that goes wrong with a mesh strainer goes wrong in the ten minutes after you use it and walk away.
| Works on | Avoid |
|---|---|
| Rice, quinoa, couscous, lentils, tinned beans, berries, salad leaves, chopped herbs, pasta, blanched vegetables, sifting flour, dusting sugar over a cake. | Leaving starchy rinse water sitting in it. Scrubbing the mesh with a wire brush. Stacking a heavy pan on top of it in the cupboard, which is how a rim gets bent out of round. |
Rinse it under the tap the moment it's empty, from the outside in so the water pushes trapped grains back out rather than further into the weave. That direction is the bit everyone gets wrong — rinsing from the inside drives rice into the mesh, and then you're picking at it with a fingernail.
The sound of dried lentils going down the drain, gone for good.
There's a specific kitchen defeat that only happens with small ingredients: you tip the pan, the water goes, and so does a third of what you were cooking. Rice through the gaps. Quinoa everywhere. A handful of blueberries wedged in the holes and squashed by the time you shake them out. It isn't a disaster, it's just an annoyance that happens two or three times a week and never stops being irritating. A fine mesh basket is the fix, and it's an embarrassingly cheap one.
Fine mesh drains faster than big holes, which sounds wrong
A punched-hole colander has maybe forty openings. A woven mesh basket has thousands of tiny ones spread over the entire curved surface, so water leaves through the whole bowl at once instead of queueing for a few large exits at the bottom. The practical result is that a colander full of washed salad stops dripping in seconds rather than sitting there weeping into the sink while you wait.
The mesh is held in a formed frame with a rolled rim, and the rim is what decides whether this lasts. It's the part you grip, the part that takes the knock against the sink edge, and the part that keeps the basket round. A soft, unfinished edge is how cheap strainers end up oval and wobbly within a year. There are handles either side and a base ring underneath, so it sits level in an empty sink and doesn't tip when you set it down full.
The jobs it quietly takes over
- Rinsing grains — rice, quinoa, couscous and lentils all stay in the basket. Run the tap through them, shake once, done.
- Washing berries and small fruit — the mesh supports them across a wide curve instead of pressing them into a few hard-edged holes, so raspberries come out intact.
- Draining tins — chickpeas and beans, without the ritual of holding the lid at an angle and hoping.
- Salad and herbs — wash, drain, and it doubles as the bowl you carry them to the board in.
- Sifting and dusting — tap flour through it into a mixing bowl, or hold it over a cake and dust icing sugar through the mesh.
- Blanching — lower vegetables in, lift them straight out into ice water, no fishing around with a slotted spoon.
What You're Getting
- One Strain Well All-Purpose Mesh Colander, a single-size everyday basket — no options to pick between
- Fine woven mesh bowl that holds rice, quinoa, lentils and berries instead of donating them to the drain
- Drains through the whole curve, not through a few holes in the base, so washed leaves stop dripping fast
- Rolled rim — the part that keeps the basket round and stops the edge going soft
- Side handles for lifting a full basket out of the sink one-handed
- Base ring so it stands level rather than rocking on a curved bottom
- Care: rinse from the outside in straight after use, warm soapy water and a soft brush for anything stubborn
- Never scour the mesh — a wire pad will open up the weave and that's permanent
- Storage: hang it or stand it on its own; don't stack heavy pans on top of the rim
Free tracked shipping to your door. Easy 30-day returns.
Free tracked shipping to your door
30 days to live with it. Send it back if it’s not the one — fewer than 1% of customers ever do.
Shipping Info
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Orders are packed and dispatched within 1–3 business days of payment.
Delivery time
- USA — 5–10 business days after dispatch
We ship within the United States only.
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Every order ships with end-to-end tracking. You’ll get a tracking link by email the moment your parcel leaves the warehouse.
Money Back Guarantee
If a piece doesn’t feel right in your home, get in touch within 30 days of delivery. We’ll arrange a refund or exchange — whichever you prefer.
No essays required. No restocking fees. Just a quick email to support@loftandstone.com and we’ll take it from there.
Fewer than 1% of customers ever need to use this, but the option’s always there — because home should feel like home.
