Recipe: Chinese Herbal/Marble Tea Eggs 茶叶蛋

Recipe adapted from: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-tea-eggs/

Ingredients:

1. 12 eggs, washed/wiped clean
2. 5g (4 pods) star anise, broke to small pieces
3. 5g (2 tsp) sichuan peppercorn, crushed
4. 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder or 2 cinnamon sticks 
5. 6 bay leaves
6. 4 black tea bags
7. 30g (2 tbsp) sugar
8. 12g (2 1/4tsp) salt
9. 10g (2 tsp) soy sauce
10. 15g (2 tsp) dark sauce
11. 900g water

Steps:

• Into a pot, add all ingredients *optional: put ingredients 2-6 into a muslin bag .
• Bring it to boil, simmer for 10 mins. Off heat, rest 10 mins.
• Crack all eggs *I used a metal spoon.
• Bring it to boil. Off heat and set aside for further steeping (about 12 hours).
• Heat it up again before serving.
• Serve tea egg with some herbal tea.
• Peel off the shell and enjoy!

Notes:

• To reduce the waiting time, I would peel 6 eggs, removing the egg shells and shorten the steeping to 4 hours instead.
• You may add more eggs in between, and transfer to a smaller pot when the amount has reduced.