Fortunately I don’t have the sore throat Maharani Kitten (try gargling with dilute hydrogen peroxide, always works for me) but still shivery and runny nose.
I read several things online suggesting that you should eat raw ginger, rather than drink a tisane of it – sounded a bit extreme, but I compromised and ate the ginger after some of the fire had been taken out of it by using it for the tisane. My head does feel a bit clearer.
Some of the novelty tea infusers are cute, but as you’ve found, not brilliantly effective – I bought a funny little silicon man that rests on the side of the cup with his arms – not too bad in terms of infusing tea, but a nightmare to clear the leaves out of his trousers, wet or dry!
A functional infuser that I use a lot (mostly inside a small teapot, one that I bought thinking that it came with an infuser insert) is still on amazon for £2 including delivery – comes from a non UK source though, so takes a week or so to arrive. Effective at not leaking leaves, even when cut fine, and easy to fill and clean.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DBULWXU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
A tea that I like for everyday that’s not hugely expensive, but nicer than the big brands with tiny leaves, is Suki tea.
They serve it in Patisserie Valerie, and sell packs of it there too I think, but it’s widely available online.
And definitely milk in last!
You can see the colour and how strong the tea is, and better judge how much milk you need.
I also have a bit of a ‘thing’ that I will only drink out of cups with white insides. I started a new job once where they had a ‘tea chart’ of how everyone took tea and coffee. Someone else had made the comment that they only used cups with white insides, A soul Mate! So I am not alone – admittedly the only person ever that I’ve met with a similar preference.
My understanding is that the milk in first thing was originally to reduce the prevalence of (inferior) cups cracking if the tea was too hot.