I use them to filter herbal teas and they work well! They work much better than gauze and won't let a single piece of herb through. Very useful for cold and hot infusions. I've also used it to strain an oil infusion and that's when I found how absorbent they are as the material soaks up quite a bit of oil. However, it did a great job of filtering and I was able to squeeze most of the oil out of the fabric in the end.