kOmpir said

Nibbling on a dry leaf ?

Do you ever do that? I just love to nibble on some LongJIng, and I just tried some White Peony. Any health concerns for doing it?

8 Replies
Raritea said

I’ve never thought to try to eat my tea leaves… but now I am tempted! I have, on occasion, picked out some nuts/chocolate/berries/fruits from my used tea leaves (or tisane leaves) to try. I can’t imagine that there would be health concerns associated though- it would just be like infusing a tea at body temperature for the time it takes to swallow the leaf. You might actually be able to get some unique flavours this way, with all the enzymes present in your mouth!

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Aiko said

I once heard someone mention tossing spent tea leaves into a green salad and eating them like that. Never tried it myself though.

When you’re drinking matcha you’re basically ingesting tea leaves anyway, aren’t you? So I can’t imagine there would be any health issues with nibbling on leaves. I’m not a doctor or anything though.

kOmpir said

Good point. I sometimes grind tea and rub it into meat. Like Lapsang Souchong and red meat, and chicken and Longjing.
I’ll have to try wet tea leaves in salad since you mentioned it.

SunnyinNY said

Putting the leaves in a salad? That sounds like a delightful idea! I’m going to have to try that…..

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TeaVivre said

Indeed, both dry tea leaves and brewed tea leaves can be ate. And tea leaves can be used to make moon cake or dessert. The material I found that said we should pay attention when we try to eat the brewed tea leaves:

And the following is the examples that the tea leaves can not be ate:

1: if using too much pesticide with the growing of the tea trees, so when we brew the tea, definitely, there will contain a certain amount of pesticide in the tea liquor.

2: inferior quality tea: because the inferior teas are made by large tea leaves, while they are easily can be bitten by the pests.

3: put the tea more than 24 hours after brewing.

4: keep in mind that not all the brewed tea leaves can be ate, generally, the brewed green tea leaves can be ate for the green tea is a type of un-fermented tea. As for the fermented tea contains carcinogens, which can led to Lung Cancer, Skin Cancer…. Though it contains few carcinogen, we still should pay attention to that.

And whether eat the leaves or not, it is just the personal preference, also it has the benefit to human’s body health.

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I’ve put Earl Grey under my lip like chew before…..I was buzzing a bit.

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kOmpir said

In documentary “The Meaning of Tea” there is short extra of people from around the world that enjoy tea in different ways. In Taiwan there’s a family that grows and produces their own tea and they actually eat it – grind it up a bit, add water and eat it like a soup.

I made Ochazuke last night and sprinkled some Sencha leaves on top. It had a nice vegetal crunch.

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Julie said

I’m really happy I’m not the only freak doing that! I really enjoy eatin my David’s tea ‘’Organic Spring White Pearls’’ when it’s brewed, it taste like vegetable. And in my opinion, it’s like drinking matcha: the full leaves are ingested! And matcha is the tea that gives you all the benefits of the tea, so eating brewed leaves must not be bad for health, I guess.

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