As you know, sometimes some teas are so unwanted or expired that you don't even have a heart to pass them to others. And sometimes a tea is so dear to your heart and you can't bear with throwing the spent leaves away. Here are some extra uses of tea that I've thought of.
1. Marinate hard-boiled eggs in water with tea (unscented black tea only), salt and soy sauce.
2. Put tea leaves (unscented tea) in a pillow or sofa cushion, or small pouch – depending how much you have. (For this purpose, I use spent leaves only. I've seen commercial products made with unused leaves though.)
3. Put tea leaves in small pouches and use them as dehumidifying bags for storage boxes or deodorizer bags in fridge. (Spent leaves do the job well.)
4. Put tea leaves in very warm/hot water for feet spa (I mean, resting your feet in warm/hot water). You can always expand this to the scale of hot tub tea bath. But I’ve found feet spa very convenient and a great enjoyment. Do it before you go to bed. Very helpful for high quality sleep, especially in winter. This is said to be one of the Chinese secrets for longevity. Well, longevity is too big to think about. But feet spa feels great! Before you go to bed, reading a book while having your feet in a big pot of warm water, that's paradise! Having your feet in a big pot of warm TEA water, that's an upgraded paradise.
5. Put tea leaves in small pouches and use them as “sniffing bags” in office. Make sure it’s a flavor that you like. I mostly use spent leaves and apply vodka based essential oil mix on them.
6. Use brewed green tea for facial (with pop-up facial paper, or mix the tea water with other facial product). Even expired green tea is very good de-oxidant and good for facial. In Asia, many women would mix green tea powder in their facial mask formula too.
Any other ideas?
六堡茶道美学煮茶
2 years ago
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2 comments:
Hi Gingko,
a few more ideas that I personally use:
- Squeeze the wet tea-leaves and/or use the remaining liquor to rub your hands. That will make your skin smooth.
- Put the (used) tea-leaves into the watering can. Your plants will like the (tea-)water.
- Put the (used) tea-leaves into the earth of your plants (flowerpot or garden). The plants like tea, too. And they will grow even better. You can also pour the remaining tea-liquor (cooled down) onto the earth of your plants.
So, you see, tea is good for plants and people. :)
Stephan
Stephan's recommendation is good. I find tea leaves make an outstanding mulch. I wrote about this some time ago in my article on composting tea leaves.
In a few rare cases, when I had tea I really did not want to drink (or share/give away) I just directly mixed it in with other used leaves, without brewing it.
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