After having been served a cup of honey citron tea at a local Chinese restaurant (for $2 with no refills, seriously) I Googled around to see what it’s about before buying an enormous jar of the stuff that is ubiquitous at the Asian market. I came across an entry on Sinosplice discussing it, and scrolling down the comments I saw the following:

Russians really mangle tea, too… They get an itty bitty teapot, what we would consider a “one cup” teapot, and fill it halfway up with loose tea. Then they add water. They let this sit and become “tea concentrate” (and VERY BITTER). They then poor a little concentrate into a teacup and add hot water and kompot. The worst part is that they leave the tea leaves in the teapot for days and days and days, sometimes adding a fresh spoonful of loose tea to make it last longer.

And Starbucks thinks we’re having it so bad that we need their instant coffee. Nyuk nyuk.