Tea on שבת

Atara Clark asks:

So I was talking to someone this past Shabbos and it came up about making tea on Shabbos. So i know that you have to do Kli Sheini but the person that I was talking to mentioned that to take the tea bag out of the tea you have to use a spoon and take some of the liquid out with it. I had never heard of this and I was wondering what the background to it is? (is it possible that that would be considered wasting/ ba'al tashchit?)
Thanks, have a great day!

Great question Atara.  As you alluded to, there is much to say on the general issue of making tea on שבת.  As to your specific question, this seems to be based on an opinion of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (cited here)  that when using a tea bag, it should be removed with a spoon in order to avoid straining the tea from the bag while holding it above the cup.  If so, it would also make sense to leave some tea in the spoon to either keep it fully saturated and avoid all straining as you remove the bag.