Eating tea leaves... page

[Drumroll]

So, it's an ancient Chinese custom to add spent tea leaves to salads, soups, and as a garnish on top of meats. In addition, the Japanese brew matcha tea from a powder of ground tea leaves and drink the powder along with the liquid. They also utilize various tea extracts and powders for a wide variety of culinary purposes. Anyone else use tea in their cooking?

I'm going to start making better use of my leftover tea leaves and not just toss them in the garbage. Waste not, want not! I don't know what kind of benefit I'll get from this, but it's a plant-based food that has been around for thousands of years, so why not?

Anyone here ever used tea for non-drinking purposes? This should be interesting to try out!

[breadsauce]

I put them in the compost heap, so they are at least recycled....

[zoebird]

I've used them to season things, yes.

I also do a lot of herbals, so those of course get used in lots of ways.

[oxide]

Aren't you the guy who got high on yerba mate? Dump that pesky water and eat the leaves straight.

[Drumroll]

Aren't you the guy who got high on yerba mate? Dump that pesky water and eat the leaves straight.

I wasn't TRYING to get high!

But I was DEFINATELY, ummm... Buzzed.

I should try eating the leaves of the mate after I'm done brewing it.

[Drakelet]

Dump that pesky water and eat the leaves straight.

Before or after brewing?

Recently I've been adding green tea leaves (from a tea bag) to my omelettes.

What is the difference, nutritionally, between brewed and unbowed tea leaves?
By consuming a tea-bag-full of tea leaves, am I getting more (in a bad way) nutrients than brewing it?

PS I'd rather bump this thread than start a new one.

[MEversbergII]

I eat tea leaves frequently, as I drink tea every day.

Drakelet: Brewed leaves will have fewer polyphenols, tannins and other dissolve-able materials in them. These escape the leaves during the steep.

When you consume them whole, brewed or unbrewed, it isn't going to hurt you.

Tea-bags, however, tend to be low quality leaves, and they're finely chopped and rather oxidized in comparison with the full leaf stuff. I'd say the processing can be sketchy.

If you're interested in starting full leaf teas, though, check out TeaGuardian sometime.

M.

[Kochin]

I use tea as a seasoning for stir-fries and stews. Always add near the end.
The texture is odd, so you may want to start with just a little and scale it up, but a whole teabag (2-5g) per person is good.

[Drumroll]

I use tea as a seasoning for stir-fries and stews. Always add near the end.
The texture is odd, so you may want to start with just a little and scale it up, but a whole teabag (2-5g) per person is good.

I'd think that you wouldn't have texture issues and would get better flavor and more antioxidants if you used full tea leaves rather than the overprocessed "tea powder" used in most cheap teabags. Just my two cents though.

[Drumroll]

I eat tea leaves frequently, as I drink tea every day.

Drakelet: Brewed leaves will have fewer polyphenols, tannins and other dissolve-able materials in them. These escape the leaves during the steep.

When you consume them whole, brewed or unbrewed, it isn't going to hurt you.

Tea-bags, however, tend to be low quality leaves, and they're finely chopped and rather oxidized in comparison with the full leaf stuff. I'd say the processing can be sketchy.

If you're interested in starting full leaf teas, though, check out TeaGuardian sometime.

M.

Yes, unbrewed leaves will have more antioxidants in them, but if you're drinking the brewed tea before you eat the leaves, then presumably you haven't lost the antioxidants in any way because you get the stuff from the tea you drink AND the leaves, so itmdoesn't really matter one way or the other.