Good loose-leaf beats teabags any day, and you rarely find the good stuff in supermarkets. I'm usually drinking some kind of rooibos-chai-mix, though. Teabags are fine for that.
We would double the bags and sweeten it until it wasn't recognizable as tea anymore. That's generally the way it happens in the deep South of the U.S. Tea quality doesn't matter after enough sugar.
I’ve always been a Starbucks chai tea latte guy (don’t shoot me, please), so when I went to Turkey I was super excited to try their chai. The real thing, right?!?! I was surprised to see the locals whip out Lipton. Everywhere it was offered, it was just Lipton. Not spiced or anything special other than they always drank it. Breakfast? Dinner? Tea time in the middle of the day? Sure.