I'm using sweetened teabags that I happened upon in the grocery store.  The bags r regular size teabags & r a brand name. I've been wanting & looking for an iced tea maker for several years. Was very pleased to see that Wayfair had this 1. It's a very good item, however I feel like someone returned it. As u can see from the 1st 2 pix, there's something white on the cord. I think maybe it had those sticky tags on that only the customer is to remove. EVERYTHING has those tags, except mine were already removed.