There is no one right way to experience tea: with 5,000 years of history, there are dozens of ways people around the world enjoy and experience tea–cultural traditions and rituals abound. Each individual can create their personal experience that brings comfort, relaxation, presence and familiarity.
Preparing tea can range from use of an individual cup and steeper (please no teaballs) to a gaiwan with sharing cups, to an English style teapot—and all manner of other steeping tools/styles in between. The important thing is to have a process/ritual/style that brings you into the present to relax into the experience. I have friend who carries a miniature gaiwan and cups on his travels and even steeps with his “kit” while on a plane; the process and ritual of steeping this way is his favorite experience.
Sometimes, as tea professionals, we may get too fixated on how a tea is to be explored. (It is a good thing to steep the tea according to the type’s recommended temperature and time—that way you get to enjoy all that the tea has to offer.) I often get asked if it is OK to put milk and sugar in tea and I say “of course—if that is how you like it”. We lose the point when we get very exacting with how tea has to be consumed and enjoyed.
Having a personal tea experience you enjoy is one of those things that are uniquely you—for you to own.