In case you're not, that's a frankly silly take. The sachets TFA talks about are not generally used for fancy "hipster" tea but rather the super mainstream commercial "tea-flavoured tea" and industrial herbal teas you like so much. Unless you consider Lipton to be fancy niche tea artisans: http://img.webme.com/pic/m/megisti/ethel-lipton-all.jpg
Beyond that the "standard" tea you seem to enjoy is probably "English breakfast tea" and you can probably still find it extremely easily in any tea shop in the world, alongside Earl Grey and a few other classics.
Even if you are a "flavored tea or herbal teas are not tea"-snob, that does not tell me whether you want black tea or green tea.
There's a huge amount of variety when it comes to tea, even when it's just different varieties and preparations of tea leaves without added herbs/spices.
As for hot tea, unless you're at some specific restaurant where the default is more obvious I would at least expect "black or green" if not Earl Gray or a few other choices.
I hope that wasn't an appeal to some kind of authority. All that tells me is that some Bangladeshi women have even worst taste in tea than this ignorant American. There's quite a wide gulf between not wanting to consume the least common denominator and making a lifestyle out of it. As for flavors, just because one's view says tea should only come in one flavor doesn't mean reality has to agree.
I can't see rayiner giving any indication that they were American, though.
> “In the past, people used to drink normal black tea. But now, they are not satisfied with the normal tea and moved to organic and value added products, concerned about their health benefits and taste,” SM Didarul Hasan, senior manager (marketing) of MM Ispahani Limited, told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Normal black tea” is what everyone drank when I lived there. “Normal black tea” was universal and egalitarian, instead of individualistic and self indulgent. Appropriately conformist and British.
As for tea flavours, the difference is usually just the addition of herbs and spices.
Absolutely, and get off my lawn while you're at it! ;)