Literature has been using asterisks, daggers, double daggers, etc. to denote markups, notes, corrections, whatever for centuries.
This is going to sound condescending and it’s not intended that way, but read a book. Not a fiction, but non-fiction. Biographies that need research, science texts on detailed subjects, psychology with many interpretations, really anything outside of a storybook.
Have fun learning, and this is not a dumb question. You’re on the right track.
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.