Tea, too

I rarely drink tea when out, as we don't have any tea houses here in town and trying to get a decent cuppa in a coffee shop or restaurant is hard if not impossible. My grandma was a tea lover back in the 1950s. She drank Lipton green tea, and loaded it with many teaspoons of sugar. She was the kind of person that was a wonderful cook but ate like a bird, preferring her tea. She made it one cup at a time and always had that water kettle on the stove.
Mother was also a tea lover. My older brother says she was influenced by Arthur Godfrey's radio ads. Godfrey pushed Lipton tea and Mom listened. She preferred black tea, and we always had that around. I started drinking black tea at an early age...coffee was verboten.
I had tea around as an adult but rarely even thought about drinking it, especially when I was out searching for beers of the world and that perfect single malt scotch and the finest Kentucky bourbon. After I had sampled and drank all the beer and whiskey I could stand , I spent more time finding out about coffees and teas. When I got back into regular tea drinking, I bought some cheap herbal teas. Not bad, but after drinking alfalfa tea I switched to Earl Grey tea, and English Breakfast teas.
I read some articles about tea, how the paper tea bags contain only what is referred to as "dust", and the finer teas must be brewed using whole leaves. I see Lipton has a new bag style...triangular. Mom used to have metal tea bags and would also buy loose tea and put it into these metal things and steep the tea that way. I have much more to learn about the fine teas that are available now. These days I have discovered Stash brand, very good green and black chai, and a mediocre plain green tea. It's cheap, but good on a cold November night in Ohio.