I am making Chinese Tea eggs. The recipe calls for 2 tbsp black tea, bu I only have black tea bags (Lipton). Can I replace the leaves by slicin open the bags and measuring out two tbsp (or more) of its contents? Ca I just use it in tea bag form? Please advise
Can I replace tea leaves with tea bags in a recipe?
Jun 28, 2010
Last reply: 16 years ago
4 Replies
Use the tea bags. It will be less ,messy. The loose tea will be more precise.
Jim
You probably could, but you may want to reduce the amount of tea used because the fannings used in the tea bag are very, very fine.
You also should note that Lipton's doesn't really taste very good, and in a dish where the tea flavour is dominant, you might want to use a better tea. You will miss out on all of the smoky flavour that good tea-marinated eggs have.
--scott
So, I won't recommend using the tea bags. You could do it, so long as you can draw and equivalence between the portions of ground tea in tea bags and regular tea leaves, but otherwise, please, do your taste buds a favor and just grab some real black tea leaves. :-) Even some cheap loose leaf tea will usually be better.
Aaron W. Hsu
Lipton's black tea is the worst. To get any flavor at all you have to pour boiling water on it.
I would think that the tea leaves in the bags would still contain some nutrients and also a little fiber, so they could be used in other dishes.
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