Dear Folks, Thinking about tea, I can only picture it now packaged up nice and neat into tea bags. When I was growing up there wasn't any such thing as tea bags, only loose tea leaves. With loose tea you really knew how to brew up a good pot of tea. You got the tea kettle boiling, got out the tea pot and when the water was boiling nicely you poured some of it into the tea pot to take the chill off it. After you had put the tea kettle back on the stove to let it boil some more, you dumped the hot water out of the tea pot, got out your canister of tea leaves and measured the right amount into the tea pot. Poured the boiling water over them and let them brew as long as you wanted to--a short while for weak tea and a much longer time for good old strong tea. When it was to your liking, you took out a tea cup and saucer and your tea strainer. You poured the tea through the tea strainer and filled up your cup. Add some milk and/or sugar and that was REAL tea. I've tried to duplicate the taste of tea brewed with loose tea leaves but for the longest time, I just couldn't come up with a similar taste using tea bags. vee