Master Experiment

Just a coupe of minutes ago I posted last night's sunset.  Sunsets are pretty rare for me.  I'm a sunrise kinda gal.  

1.  I really don't like heating water, or anything in a cup, in the microwave because even the handle gets too hot to hold.
2.  This is (obviously) a blip of my coffee maker.
3.  I'm not supposed to drink coffee with this freaking miserable cold.
4.  The doctor suggested that hot liquids would be good for me.
5.  I'm out of my homemade soup.
So...
I decided to experiment.  Let me first stipulate that I very rarely  drink hot tea  (though oddly enough, I have five varieties/boxes of tea bags in my pantry).  Given 1-5 above, I thought I would try to make tea with the coffee pot; not putting bags directly in the pot to steep but by opening the bags and putting the loose tea inside the filter on top.  The water would run through it just as it does coffee.  BUT...would it work? Would the tea be strong enough or would it be weak for the lack of a 'deep steep'?

Much to my surprise, IT WORKED!  My question is this:  In the countries where tea is consumed at much higher rates than coffee, does anyone make it this way or is the traditional teapot the popular method?  I'm seriously fascinated by this.

I have nothing else to do today but blow my nose and ponder about tea.  How pathetic is that?