It's funny how inconsequential things can stick in your mind sometimes. I read this question over at Ask Metafilter, and it came back to me a day later when I was brewing a cup of hot tea. Sweet tea, according to the question, apparently varies in its preparation and order of ingredients. This reminded me of one thing I learned a couple of years ago with regards to tea.

I can't drink tea without some sort of milk in it. I have to lighten the tea, soften the bitterness, and add that slight creaminess. The problem I had was that after adding the milk (soy or dairy) , it would curdle, leaving the tea's surface teeming with little bits ready for Little Miss Muffett. Nothing really helped, until one day I read of what someone deemed the "Scottish" method of preparing tea –adding milk to the cup along with the bag, and pouring boiling water over it, allowing the tea to brew and mix with the milk simultaneously. This was opposed to the "English" method (and I make no claims about the accuracy of this term), which involved adding the milk after the tea had brewed.

It works. My tea doesn't curdle any longer. Hurrah! Simplicity at its finest.