Oh my goodness that is so expensive.

Seriously? $7 for 4 oz. tea is really not bad. Even rather expensive high end green teas are much cheaper than (say) fine wines.

I bet most people don't drink two bottles of fine wine every day ;-)

Well, touche, but that much tea could last a while. A couple ounces of tea is like a couple cases (not bottles) of wine, several pounds of coffee beans, etc. I'm not sure exactly how long 4 oz. of tea would last (my wife and I rotate through a couple different teas), but probably several weeks.

Good tea is cheap, you typically just mail-order a good quantity at a time and keep it in an airtight tin. The samplers from Adagio are ~1 oz., and a great way to try out several for a few dollars each.

Correct, really good tea can be cheap. I am a fanatical tea drinker -- something like a gallon a day. And I find a 100 gm supply (3.5 oz) to go for about a month. At teaspring.com, that much of a geniunely good Taiwanese oolong (my favorite) costs about $20.

I don't know how much a month's supply of really good coffee costs for the fanatical drinker, but I know my monthly budget sure wouldn't get you far at Starbuck's . . .