My family kept to British ways so I can't remember when I had my first
tea. We had tea for breakfast and in the afternoon, and I probably had
the first sip when my mother deemed me old enough for
caffeine--probably when I was seven or eight. My mother being very
traditional, we'd usually have English Breakfast in the morning and
Darjeeling in the afternoon, with the odd Ceylon thrown in. Mostly
Twinings tea bags, except when guests were around or my mother could be
bothered with loose teas. Boarding school and university broadened my
horizons, chiefly thanks to a group of Asian friends. Then I started
working in a tea shop and that was it. I couldn't afford most of their
teas, but got hooked anyway.