Since we're talking hot tea, and not iced tea, I can happily put in my two cents. Oddly, I love hot tea, but I don't really like ice tea. But when I do drink ice tea, it must have sugar in it. 1 cup sugar to two quarts tea.

It really depends on the flavor of tea. If I'm drinking Liptons (orange and black pekoe), it's 4 teaspoons of sugar first, then enough milk to turn it a nice tanish brown color. If I'm drinking other flavors (earl grey, english breakfast, irish breakfast, rose tea), it's usually about 2 and a half teaspoons, and milk depending on my mood. Milk NEVER goes into rose leaf tea. And I usually use what's in the fridge, which is usually 2% milk. At work, I have to use powdered creamer.

Rose leaf is the only loose leaf tea I have, and I use a tea ball when making that.

The kettle is usually taken off the burner soon before it whistles, unless I'm distracted, because the whistling grates on my nerves. I only use the microwave when I'm visiting somewhere. The coffee maker at work has a hot water spigot, so I use that.

I don't like lemon, so I don't use it. But I learned the hard way, being curious one time, that lemon will curdle the cream. Blech.

"You need me. You wouldn't be much of a hero without a villain. And you do love being the hero, don't you. The cheering children, the swooning women, you love it so much, it's made you my most reliable accomplice." -- Lex Luthor to Superman, Question Authority, Justice League Unlimited