These traditional Chinese marbled tea eggs are boiled in a soy sauce, tea and spices and make a great snack. Serve with various dips, sauces or just on its own!
I was recently writing a blog post about how not to crack your eggs when you are boiling them, when I remembered that we used to purposefully crack our boiled eggs when we were growing up. I had to dig around in my memory to try to remember why, but eventually, it all came back to me!
My mum was always into all things Chinese (and Japanese) – the culture, the food, the books, art, pretty much everything! So whilst all the other mums were cooking traditional Czech foods like heavy dumplings with stew, my mum would make soya meat stir ups with noodles.
You might think that’s not that unusual, but this was back in 1980s in the country ruled by Communism, when nobody could travel and that was definitely a bit different!
I was really happy for my mum when a couple of years ago she finally fulfilled her dream of visiting China and Japan and explore all the places that she has been reading about all her life.
Anyway, I digress! Back to my marbled Chinese eggs!
We used to make them quite often and then have them around as snacks and often take them to school with our sandwiches. As kids, since we didn’t know any different, we thought that it was absolutely normal and that everyone made them at home until we realised that nobody saw eggs like that before. It made us kind of cool!
Ingredients
The recipe for Chinese marbled eggs is very simple, but it varies from recipe to recipe and in different parts of China.
Tea leaves
I use strong dark tea leaves and I probably use more than the original recipe, but I love the flavour. If you don’t have loose tea, you can use tea bags – anything like strong tea bags will be fine.
Tea will add flavour but also the colour – you can easily use tea bags to colour your clothes or age fabric or paper. The colour gets darker the longer you leave the eggs in.
Soya Sauce
Soya sauce will flavour your eggs, so it’s important to add at least 3 tablespoons for every 4 eggs.
Sugar
Not all recipes include sugar, but I rather think it adds to the taste. Use it sparingly.
Salt
Again, not always necessary, but I like to use special salts, like a black charcoal salt, which not only adds flavour but also colour.
Spices
There are different types of spices you can use, but I usually use cinnamon, anise and peppercorns. It’s best to use them whole, so that they are easily taken out when you don’t need them.
But, to be honest, if you only have a ground form of all of these, use them. Just make sure you wash the eggs before you serve them as you might end up with powdered spice on your eggs.
How to make marbled Chinese eggs
Making the marbled tea eggs is quite easy. Start with boiling your eggs as if you are making hard boiled eggs, but don’t let them boil for more than 5 minutes, once the water starts to boil properly.
Take them out of the water (or cool them down with cold water) and gently crack them all over. I find it easiest to crack them on hard surfaces, like the kitchen sink, but you might find it easier to crack them with a spoon.
Next prepare your mix of soya sauce, tea leaves and spices, based on your own taste (you can tweak my recipe as much as you like). Add the eggs and simmer for a minimum of 30 minutes or a bit longer.
Make sure that your eggs are fully submerged into the water (use smaller saucepan or more water) otherwise, you might end up with uneven colour and flavour. To intensify the flavour, I always leave the eggs to cool down in the saucepan and then leave them overnight in the fridge marinating in the soya liquid.
Your marbled Chinese eggs can be stored up to 5-7 days in the fridge. I usually keep them unpeeled until I eat them, as the shells prevents them from drying out.
I hope you enjoy making these fun looking marbled eggs and if you do, let me know in the comments below.
Magdalena
More savoury snacks recipes
Chinese Tea Eggs Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons dark flavoured tea
- 3 tablespoons soya sauce
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 anise star
- 1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
- 4 cloves
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Bring water to boil and add your eggs.
- Boil the eggs for about 5 minutes – you need them to be hard enough, so that you can crack them, but don't over boil them.
- Pour cold water over the eggs
- Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, crack the shell all over. You can do this with a spoon or I just tap them on a hard surface (like in the sink).
- Put the eggs back into the sauce pan and add boiling water and all the spices, sugar, salt, tea and soya sauce.
- Simmer for at least 30 mins (or longer) making sure that the eggs are fully covered with the water and topping up if necessary.
- Leave to cool down the eggs with the tea water and then place into the fridge (covered) over night or for further 12 hrs. This will help with the flavour.
- Peel the egg shells and serve on it's own or with a dipping sauces or salad.
Kat says
I love the appearance of these eggs, they look so pretty!
Chloe Edges says
These look fab, I really need to remember to make some for my next Chinese inspired Feast!