TeaChat

OK, here is an odd one. Does anyone have anything that they do with spent leaves? I have only ever heard composting, and occasionally cooking.

Sometimes they are just so pretty that I hate to see them go in the trash! Just today I chewed/sucked on a spent Gao Shan for 20 minutes (while teaching!) and although bitter, it was so so tasty.

Any ideas?

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?p=97216
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?t=7722

Though, after making my pillow, I have to say that buckwheat is more comfortable.

I feed them to my Chickens

I pop mine to the compost pile and let them return to the earth...

Worms love tea nearly as much as me

I visited a lovely lady today (one of my TEAchers) who told me to eat them, and then we ate a bunch of different kinds. Some were bitter, some were a little sweet, all were satisfying. Very nice!

I use mine as compost too around my miniature trees on my balcony which tend to dry out too quickly. The thick layer of tea leaves helps keep the soil moist longer.

I have been talking to a woman who makes Western raku pottery about using them as combustibles for bud vases. I think the different shapes would make some really cool patterns.

IPT wrote:I have been talking to a woman who makes Western raku pottery about using them as combustibles for bud vases. I think the different shapes would make some really cool patterns.

Or setting them around some bizen teawares, so that instead of lines of straw, you'd have sprays of tea leaves and buds?



I just feed mine to the worm bin. They seem to love them. It's one thing that disappears quickly without a trace, unlike the melon rinds or corn cobs that sometimes take quite a while.

I just compost mine....they go into a big pile in the corner of the vegetable garden with all the other vegetable scraps and dead plants from the garden itself.

I throw them into my driveway at night for the opposums. They seem to dig it. The pile of that day's spent tea sessions is always gone in the morning.

I have the healthiest vermin in the neighborhood!

needaTEAcher wrote:I visited a lovely lady today (one of my TEAchers) who told me to eat them, and then we ate a bunch of different kinds. Some were bitter, some were a little sweet, all were satisfying. Very nice!

I've heard spent gyokuro leaves are quite good. I will be trying that on my next batch of gyo. The one I'm currently working on is from Shizuoka, and while I'm not worried about drinking it, I'm a little reluctant to eat the leaves.

FlyedPiper wrote:

needaTEAcher wrote:I visited a lovely lady today (one of my TEAchers) who told me to eat them, and then we ate a bunch of different kinds. Some were bitter, some were a little sweet, all were satisfying. Very nice!

I've heard spent gyokuro leaves are quite good. I will be trying that on my next batch of gyo. The one I'm currently working on is from Shizuoka, and while I'm not worried about drinking it, I'm a little reluctant to eat the leaves.

Spent gyo leaves tasted awfully bland to me when I tried them...but they were really spent...I think I already drank all the tasty compounds.

I eat some of my leaves. They all taste nice to me. The ones I don't eat go into the garden.

Hey, needateacher. I dehydrate the pure tea spent leaves and use them in several variations of hand-made paper creation. I use this paper for many art projects. But one of my favourites is to use the paper to cover recycled tea tins that I then fill with herbal 'teas' I've foraged (labrador tea, rose hip, mossberry, cranberry, etc). I give these tins as gifts.
I also use them once in a while as decoration on masks I make.
If I use tisanes or genmaicha or the like, I compost them after use.
I've never tried eating them as others have...that's up next.

How do you dehydrate them? My fiance loves to make collages, and the tea tin idea is great!

You can just spread them on a plate in a thin layer, and they'll dry out on their own.