"Strong, milky, and sweet."

Seeing as my British/Scottish forebears (at least what I know of them) were mostly working-class, perhaps that's why I like my tea like that in many cases. (Maybe it's my Irish forebears that make me drink the Lady Grey "straight"? How do the Irish prefer their tea, anyway?)

I also like that how in a lot of the "Golden Age" British novels, the standard treatment for some kind of life-shock (from minor domestic issues to finding a dead body in the gardener's shed) was a strong hot cup of tea (with or without milk and sugar). Of course, tea is a stimulant, so if someone's already jittery, I'm not sure how much it would help physiologically, but it seems to psychologically.

I also understand that tea - its availability and provision of it in shelters during the Blitz and such - was a necessary part of British morale during WWII.

I also like white tea, which, like the green tea, I drink without sweetener or milk.

And then there's the whole issue of what one should eat with tea. I tend to be of the opinion that tea is best with fussy little sandwiches and a nice impressive three-tiered stand of tiny baked goods (fancy bar cookies, cream puffs, little scones) but of course I never have that on hand, so if I eat something with my tea it is more likely to be a shortbread cookie or something like that.

A few times in my life I have been able to go to a tea room for the full treatment. It's lovely but sadly happens very seldom. (Some day, some day I am going to go to a city that has a Ritz hotel and take tea at the Ritz.)

I also like dunking windmill cookies (one of my favorite types of cooky) in hot tea. But that seems less refined than the type of tearoom-tea I'm talking about; it's almost nursery-food behavior.