I have to express to you my excitement at the responses my simple
posting received! I was expecting one somebody to write "because it
tastes good" and that be about it, but instead I received an amazing
array of interesting stories about how love of the most simply
brilliant invention in the history of humanity (at least in my book -
which has yet to be written)springs forth from the dullness of the
well-branded consumer world showing us that there is beauty in the
most basic of things. A leaf in some hot water is about as basic as it
seemingly gets. Sincerely, thank you.

By the way, I also grew up drinking my grandfather's lemonade, which
is what many people in the deep, hot south refer to as "tea". I can
still taste it now. In the north there a less prominent tea culture to
me, because almost no one drank what we called "tea". Surprise. When I
moved to Japan I drank some other "tea" and it was also quite
different. After some time, like everything else, it was part of
everyday life. Then it somehow became something to look forward to
during the day. Then it became something to learn about and shop for
and find google groups about and etc., etc.

Thank you again.

Rufus T. Firefly
Tokyo