hot tea, iced tea, sun tea
if i'm having hot tea, it can only be tetley british brisk, twinnings english or irish breakfast in bags, but i have used loose tea in the past, and i would again. at home a glass teapot that whistles lets me know when the water is boiling. i dump the warming water from the special tea mug, it has a lid to keep the tea hotter, then steep for 6 minutes, toss the bag in the compost pot, without squeezing it, add one half teaspoon sugar. at work, the bottled water dispenser has a hot tap and i have the twinnings individual packets for an occasional afternoon pick me up, but no cream cakes or jelly breads to go with that-darn!. at home, now that it is warmer i've been making iced teas, luzanne brand , half decaf and half regular, i use a mr coffee tea maker for those pots of tea. today at goodwill i got a brand new suntea bottle (for 25 cents!) to make suntea with, so i'll give that a try tomorrow. i'll try the first bottle with applecinnamon tea. i don't sweeten iced teas at home.
there is a regional difference that i've noticed in my travels, US southern tea is often sweetened with sugar (never found anyone south of cincinnatti that uses fake sweetners, publically at least, in their tea. my current favorite south carolina style bar-be-que place serves me half-half tea, half unsweetened "yankee" tea, half"the right way", as the smiling dixie voiced waitress with a serious beehive hairdo says. :D