Tea Eggs (Chinese Marbled Eggs)

By Minnesotastan in Food & Drink on Sep 21, 2009 at 6:34 pm

These visually striking eggs are produced by hard-boiling an egg, cracking the shell, and then steeping the egg in a flavored tea or broth. The batik-like marbling effect is more prominent when teas with high levels of tannin are used; the duration of the second boiling will influence both the color of the marbling and the degree to which the tea or broth flavor penetrates the egg.

Link (and photo credit), via Sharp as Teeth and Stars.

Tags: Chinese marbled egg, design, egg, Food, tea, tea egg

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nolly
Sep 21st, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I’ve also seen this done with food coloring – very pretty!
kristine b
Sep 21st, 2009 at 7:07 pm
We use onion peels (the brown ones) to dye easter eggs and they look like this on the inside if you crack them. Red cabbage or beets would make nice purply colors. Much healthier than food coloring.
felixthecat
Sep 21st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Neat. When I was a child, I would do this with my mother, but no one ever ate the eggs. When they finally verged on being spoiled, we would leave them outside for the opossums.
awkwardsmile
Sep 21st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Hehehe. I chuckled when I saw this, because I’m Chinese and my first thought was: ‘Why the *$(&%(# is THAT on Neato?’ before realising it looks pretty intriguing to anyone who hasn’t been eating them their whole life. Nice find Minne!

@felix: Missed out on some good stuff, there.
tt
Sep 21st, 2009 at 8:27 pm
and it taste great too!!
that is, if you like tea [in general too] cause the teabag used to cook this dish is a little bitter..
Gauldar
Sep 21st, 2009 at 9:05 pm
You can get these at a tea shop in the mall near my work.
Johnny Cat
Sep 21st, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Love me some bitter tea and egg, especially if it’s this cool looking.
jacinta
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 2:03 am
my mom used to make eggs like this when i was little. we use red onion peel and sweet soy sauce so it’s delicious to eat too.
Tim Giachetti
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 3:04 am
I welcome our alien egg overlords.
unohav_1
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 6:30 am
Just this past Easter I did this with food coloring. Made BEAUTIFUL deviled eggs. They looked like porcelain.
hhype
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 8:25 am
I can’t remember an Easter when we didn’t crack an egg or two and do this on purpose. My grandmother would peal eggs and then dye them to make deviled eggs because then the white would have a cool colored edge why the food coloring had penetrated.

Not sure that this is neat or different or whatever it takes to get posted here however. Mostly seems obvious.
Miss Cellania
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 9:13 am
awkwardsmile, I felt the same way when Alex posted something about the amazing kudzu, since it’s so common where I live. But stuff like this is neat for people who don’t see it everyday!
Kalel
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 11:27 am
Eggs to dye for.
Gauldar
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Ahh Kalel, I see your going off the “steep” end with the puns today!
LisaL
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Yuck… with something other than tea, maybe. Tea by itself= good if it’s iced…. on an egg? Bleh.
Gauldar
Sep 22nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
@LisaL

I take it that these hard boiled eggs arn’t your cup of tea?
yannie
Sep 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 am
the eggs are not cracked intentionally. just boiled boiled and boiled in the tea (plus herbs) for a LONG LONG time.. like a day! den slowly the egg keeps hitting the sides till it cracks
yannie
Sep 23rd, 2009 at 1:36 am
oh yar, they are YUMMY. they dont taste bitter at all!
dragonmamma/naomi
Sep 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I used to do this with the kids with Koolaid powder and called them dinosaur eggs.
Ali S.
Sep 24th, 2009 at 1:02 am
I once had a bright orange coloured egg for a snack at a friend’s house. His Mum is Chinese so she was pretty stoked when I was wide eyed at how she made these beautiful and tasty eggs.

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