RECIPE: Chinese Style Tea Eggs

Tea eggs was one of our favorite afternoon snacks growing up. They are available in every convenient store like 7-11 or Family Mark in Taiwan. As soon as you enter the convenience store, you are immediately greeted by the aroma of tea eggs. Its smell brings back the memories of our student life in Taiwan.

Ingredients

2 dozen of eggs
4 black tea bags: You can use any black tea bags available in the supermarket. We are using the Taiwanese old-fashioned black tea bag for this recipe, which contains cassia seeds for extra fragrance.
1 cup of soy sauce
2 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar
4 Star anise
5 Dried bay leaves: optional
1 tbsp of Sichuan peppercorn: optional

Steps

Rinse the eggs with running water.
Bring water to a boil. Add salt.
Cook the eggs in the boiling water for 8 minutes.
Remove the eggs from pan. Put them in iced water.
Lightly knock the eggs on a hard surface. Make sure the egg shells are cracked enough, so the marinade can go in. Do not remove the shells.

Start a fresh boiling water in a pot. Add all the spices (star anise, dried bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorn).
Put tea bags, sugar, and soy sauce to the pot.
Put the cracked eggs in the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Let the eggs marinate in the broth overnight in the fridge.

You can serve the tea eggs cold or in room temperature. Pair it with your favorite tea and make it a delicious and healthy dish! Enjoy!

Watch the full process video here.

Products we used for this story:
Winged Rice Bowl in White Speckle
Small Oval Plate in Black
Ceramic Milk Pitcher in Black