Finally, I got em’ right!
I have been trying to get these Chinese tea eggs to come out beautifully marbled and full of salty smoky flavor and I finally did it!
Tea eggs are a common Chinese snack found in street food stalls and also made at home to eat with a hot cup of tea. The intricate marbled lacework across the white comes from soaking in a marinade of soy sauce, Chinese black tea, and spices. Here’s how it’s done….
If you can boil water, you can make tea eggs. I used this method of hard-boiling eggs to make sure they came out the perfect consistency and it worked marvelously! Place up to 6 eggs in a pot that isn’t too huge for them but also not crowded. Add 1 and a half quarts of water and start heating it up.
As soon as the water comes to a bare simmer (rising bubbles are starting to make the surface bounce and quiver but not yet roll,) remove the pot from the heat and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes.
Then rinse the eggs under cool water until they are cool enough to touch.
Now comes the fun part, bashing them up!
Use the back of a spoon to break the egg all over, making a fine meshwork of cracks. There is a membrane just under the shell that will hold all the pieces in place so don’t worry about breaking it apart, just don’t hit it so hard that you jam shell pieces down into the egg!
Add the eggs back to the pot and add just enough water to cover. I use the same water that the eggs boiled in and just pour some out.
Add soy sauce, mirin, cinnamon sticks, anise, black peppercorns, and any style of black tea you can get your hands on, though a traditional Chinese black or pu-erh is best. Heat the marinade just until you can smell the spices infusing and the tea leaves are unfurled and soft. Don’t let it boil or even simmer, it’ll overcook the eggs!
In China it is common to let the eggs sit in the marinade for 2 days to fully absorb the flavor. I let mine sit overnight, on the counter until cool and then in the fridge in a sealed plastic container. If you really wanna eat them sooner, 4 hours should do it.
Then they’re ready to peel. I have not found a good way to do this without half-mangling the egg whites, so if you have a preferred technique by all means use it. One good tip I do know of though is to try to get under the membrane so that you can peel up more of the shell at once.
Serve with tea or any time!
Chinese tea eggs
Hard boiled eggs marbled with fragrant soy, spices, and Chinese black tea.
Ingredients
- 4 to 6 eggs
- 1.5 quarts water
- 1 star anise pod
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tsp. black peppercorns
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. mirin
- 2 tbsp. or 2 teabags of black tea
Cooking Directions
- Put eggs in cold water in a saucepan that is just big enough for them.
- Bring heat up to a bare simmer, remove from heat and let sit in hot water for 10 minutes.
- Run cool water over eggs then crack all over with the back of a spoon.
- Return eggs to pot and pour out all but enough of the water to just cover eggs.
- Add seasonings and sauces and turn heat to medium-low to infuse spices and tea into liquid.
- After the marinade smells fragrant, turn off heat and let eggs sit in the liquid for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Peel eggs carefully and store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
The flavor is faintly smoky and lightly salty with a slight tickle from the spicy anise. I love to keep of few of these in the fridge for a healthy and satisfying snack in the afternoon. They are perfect to pop right after a good workout for a protein punch! But mostly, I like to savor them in exactly 4 bites, each with the perfect proportion of creamy just-set yolk.
I hope you try them, they’re worth the wait!
I am so intrigued by this. Totally going to give it a shot!
Wow these look amazing! I’m not an egg fan so I’m not sure I’d like them but they sure look impressive.
I’m a new(ish) reader and I just wanted to say hi and that I really like your blog
Thanks Sophie!
Phwoar! I’ve seen, and intended to make, recipes like this before, but yours is by far the best ’cause I truly love the flavour of the broth you’ve got going!
Those look SO cool! Your description of the taste has my mouth watering! Never thought I’d say that about eggs…
These are beautiful! What inspired you to want to make them?
I cook a lot of asian foods at home, so I’ve been familiar with them for a while but just never tried making them. And my husband and I are both tea nuts, so anything tea flavored sounds good to us.
These do look very pretty. I’m not an egg person either but I do love tea – hence my sort of off topic question (I thought you might know since you honeymooned in Japan and do seem to cook Asian foods often): I love green tea and have been making it iced for the summer but do you know if one is supposed to boil the water, add the tea, and let it cool? Or does one just add cool water and let it sit? Does it matter? Is the caffeine amount different?
Just curious! (And thanks, if you do know)
You know, I love iced tea made from good quality teas, but I haven’t had much luck in making them myself. I do know that green tea gets bitter if it gets too hot, 170 degrees is ideal but anything under boiling would be fine. If you brew it hot, you would want to brew it double strength and then dilute it with cool water or ice. If you use a cold brew method, I’m sure you’d have to let it sit much longer but you can brew it at the exact strength you want to drink it at.
As far as caffeine goes, I don’t think water temperature will affect that. What will make a difference is if you are using loose leaf tea or tea bags. Most teas lose most of their caffeine on the first brew, so if you can throw the first batch out you’ll also be tossing most of the caffeine. The problem is with tea bags they don’t really brew very well a second time, but with leaf you could throw out the first batch and still get good flavor on the next one using the same leaf but without all the caffeine present. Hope that isn’t too confusing.
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These are seriously pretty!
Really enjoyed your post!