Does anyone "eat" the steeped green tea leaves?
I have been enjoying rather large tied green tea balls that open up when steeped into green tea flowers. Most of the tea leaves stay in their tie, but some of the leaves break off into the tea and float to the surface. I find that chewing on them is quite tasty. Can I safely swallow them?
Is there any reason NOT to consume these green tea leaves? Is there any benefit?
We stuffed our Thanksgiving turkey with steeped green tea leaves and it was quite good, although perhaps somewhat subtle. Are there other uses for the steeped or unsteeped leaves, aside from cooking with matcha (finely powdered ceremonial green tea)?
liu
Dec 07, 2006 07:45PM
When the Burmese make tea salads, they use leaves that have been soaked in cool, running water for days and days. It's delicious, by the way. But other than the occasional matcha-flavored sweet, I haven't heard much else about tea leaves as food.
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Does it taste like a seaweed salad, perhaps in texture?
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I was told to eat my green tea leaves for added health effect. Its the equivalent of having 2 oranges, the tea expert told me, when I was buying "long jeng" green tea.
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Interesting...I was hoping for some information like this -- unless it is too good to be true????
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Well, if you think about it ... the tea is just water that has diluted some of the flavour from tea leaves. The leaves will still have most of its nutrients in it, and if you think the tea itself is good, the tea leaves should have more than what the tea offers.
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Does decaf work as well? Otherwise, I think eating tea leaves would keep me awake for the next decade.
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Yeah, I'm not so sure with other teas.. 'coz green teas have lots of nutrients and good stuff in it, so I was told the above. Just make sure what youre eating is good for you!
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well, I suppose it'd be the equivalent of eating the leaves after a good steeping or two--flushing is, after all, all that producers do to "decaffeinate" a product.
So, probably yes, but I'd hazard a guess and say it wouldn't be as beneficial as drinking and eating normal leaves.
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Well, there are three issues possible when eating something "weird".
1. Is it poisonous?
2. Is it unchewable?
3. Is it sharp/pointy?
So, for example, you don't want to eat toadstools because of #1; you don't eat lime leaves, even sliced, because of #2; and you don't eat whole artichoke leaves principally because of #3.
Tea leaves have none of these issues, and in point of fact anyone who's ever been to a Chinese restaurant has had tea leaves because some of them make it through the strainer.
I don't know that I'd chow down on them, but maybe... or you could make like coca leaf, put it in the pocket of your mouth, and chaw.
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And HELLO, Das Ubergeek!
I love your way of looking at this...so simple and so perfect! And I wonder if it could be "chawed" like tobacco?????
Thanks for your great response! And I will keep your litmus test of poisonous?-unchewable?-pointy? in my pocket for my future Chowing adventures!
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I eat very thinly-sliced lime leaves all the time in certain Thai dishes in restaurants and prepared at home as well. Am I missing something here?
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Me too, so far I'm fine. But they're home grown and the tender newish ones. And I also eat the thin-sliced lemon grass, which isn't really chewable. They really can't be any worse than broccoli.
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I eat lime leaves, sliced in things like Thai pork lettuce wraps. I don't eat them in soup, I fish them out like bay leaves, but I don't have a problem eating them in stirfrys and stuff....
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You know I eat leaves, right, A?
I figure it'd be, if nothing else, akin to having another leafy green in my diet ^^
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Howdy and Hi, PseudoNerd!
I hope you are serious, because my thinking runs along the same line. It just seems like they would be healthy. I love seaweed in all its permutations, so I equate tea leaves in this same category.
Soooo, J, how do you eat them...as a salad, with a little soy dressing or sesame oil, a little grated ginger and some sesame seeds, perhaps? I might then squeeze a fresh orange over the entire dish.
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Am I J? :)
I just eat the leaves just straight out when I'm done my tea, really. Eat them in its purist form to get the most nutrients out of it. But I've heard of Chinese dishes using tea leaves to make. I cant recall any off the top of my head, maybe the home cooking board can help you out on that one.
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nah, I'm the abovementioned J ^^
I eat it the same way as jennjen does, without any additions, after finishing my tea.
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In the book, "New Tastes in Green Tea," by Mutsuko Tokunaga, she refers to eating steeped leaves several times. She suggests using them as you would use any parboiled green vegetable; also to add them to rice pilafs and salads, or mix into the batter of deep-fried dishes.
In fact, when you drink matcha, you are actually "eating" tea, as matcha is from the full leaves (minus stem and veins), ground to powder.
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LBeff - You have offered some good ideas...thanks! I have heard about this book before, and I love the idea of adding some pieces of green tea to any rice dish.
Regarding the matcha, the bottom of the cup with the matcha-mud is my favorite part! In fact, when I am being served really good green tea (usually matcha) in a sushi bar, I ask for them to swirl the pot before they pour it so that I can get the powdered pieces of leaves. The servers who love tea themselves really "get" it; and the ones who don't probably just think I am strange with this request!
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I'm still getting used to matcha myself. What I like about this tea book is that it gives "permission" to try different ways of drinking green tea. She shows recipes for floats, shakes and coffee-type drinks. I like playing with tea this way, as I've always been more of a purist.
Have fun eating your tea!
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would I get the same health benefits if I just ate the leaves raw as opposed to steeped?
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I've no idea but I'm wondering -- is tea anything like bay leaves? Why are bay leaves considered to be inedible but still good for flavor? I guess lemon grass and cinnamon fall into this category, eh, or is tea different? What about coffee?
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Often when I reconstitute dried shrooms I'll use left over tea. Also you can smoke fish with tea. I totally add Jasmine tea to rice as it's being cooked. Nummy.
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