Electric kettle for the water, poured over a bag of strong black tea in a glass, with a bit of sugar. As far as brand goes, I’m not all that picky, just so long as it’s black and plain and relatively strong. Mostly it’s Tetley or Twining’s English Breakfast.

I drank coffee pretty much exclusively for years. I’d drink tea occasionally, and I always liked it well enough, but it just couldn’t hold my interest. The thing that made the difference was drinking it out of a glass.

One day, some years ago, I noticed a scene of Russians drinking tea in a restaurant in a movie and started thinking about it. I was aware that they drank hot tea in glasses, but I’d never really considered it before. I had a nice set of institutional quality highball glasses that I’d gotten from a restaurant that went out of business, so I decided to give it a try. And I’ve never looked back.

As near as I can figure it out, using a glass just made it a complete and satisfying experience. I think that’s part of the reason that tea had never held my interest before - I didn’t have a satisfying way to drink it, day in and day out. I never liked teacups - they’re just too small and dainty to be satisfying. And trying to drink it out of a mug was sort of weird - as if my mouth was expecting coffee and was surprised, and a bit disappointed, to get tea instead. But the glass makes it its own thing, and makes it satisfying in and of itself.