Thai Tea?

What on earth is Thai Tea? One of my colleagues asked me about this, and I'm sure I could do minimal research and find out a bit more.

Instead, I'm opening it up as a question here on my blog. I've had spicy chilled tea with milk while eating at a Thai restaurant, and I'm sure that's a good starting place. And the little I read about it said that it's simple black (red) tea brewed with spices and served iced with milk.

Ok. What spices? Are they easy to obtain? We have tons of Asia markets here in Munich, but they seem to offer mostly Chinese and a few Japanese products. Can you point me to a reliable place to get spices for Thai Tea? What is your experience with this?

Erik Kennedy (@thetearooms on twitter) says of Thai Tea that 'People drink it out of a bloody plastic bag.' Uh...really? Please don't him have the last word on this. Fill me in.