eating tea

[TwoPynts]

Funny that I should stumble across this thread.
I was just contemplating tasting a Yunnan Golden Curls leaf tip left over from a recent brewing session. They look rather enticing and feel nice and plump.

EDIT: Well, the idea was better than the reality. Still, they didn't taste bad. Perhaps less fully brewed and prepared as some of you mentioned with Soy Sauce.

[Marco]

I always nibble some of the dry leaves when I'm brewing high-quality gyokuro or shincha/sencha. I like the crunchy needle-rolled leaves, and it adds to my enjoyment of smelling the warmed leaves before I brew (a habit I picked up from Chip and the aroma is divine!). If I experience the aroma while also munching some dry leaf, the intensity is definitely enhanced. I highly recommend it.

I recently ate some dry gyokuro leafs because some didn't make it in my pot and were on the table - i thought "why not?" - and hey they were surprisingly crunchy
I like teasnacks

And yesterday I put my used sencha leafs over my noodles - nice - I reccomend trying it.

[Chip]

I always nibble some of the dry leaves when I'm brewing high-quality gyokuro or shincha/sencha. I like the crunchy needle-rolled leaves, and it adds to my enjoyment of smelling the warmed leaves before I brew (a habit I picked up from Chip and the aroma is divine!). If I experience the aroma while also munching some dry leaf, the intensity is definitely enhanced. I highly recommend it.

Very interesting ... definitely going to try this.

[TwoPynts]

I bet tempura tea leaves would be interesting...

[mbishop]

I bet tempura tea leaves would be interesting...

Here's some pictures I saw online of fried tea leaves:

[TwoPynts]

Here's some pictures I saw online of fried tea leaves:

Mmmm, decadent. I wonder how they taste.

[Tead Off]

Pickled tea leaves in Burma are often one of the small dishes served at meals. Very good. So many ways to use and eat the leaves.

[Zion21]

One of my favorite tea vendor Sugimoto has suggested to eat tea leaves as a salad.

http://sugimotousa.blogspot.com/2010/05 ... ewing.html

Sounds like it could work. It's a good read.

[britt]

Japan and Taiwan have many food products available in local Asian markets that use green tea, especially matcha, as an ingredient. Japanese soft cakes with matcha and Meada-en ice cream mochi (rice ball) with matcha are two that I regularly purchase. There are also rice toppings available from Japan which contain Shizouka green tea. You put the topping on the rice and add a few ounces of hot water. The green broth that results is quite attractive and does look like you poured sencha over the rice.

[Yemstar]

I just tried eating some of my Sai Midori with soy sauce (what can i say... i was bored! ) Tastes like spinich! I was surprised at how 'un-tealike' the leaves tasted compared to its liquidy goodness counterpart.

[MadeForTeaVea]

What about smoking it? Wait...I'm not joking. I once bought a pack of tobacco-less cigarettes that's main ingredient was green tea leaves.

Then one of my tea friends was telling me he read online about people smoking tea leaves. I guess it's pretty common in some parts of the world. Has one had any experience with this or know anything about smoking tea leaves?

BTW the tea cigarettes were horrible. It was like smoking a campfire.

[Chip]

Well, TBH ... we had a lot of tee smokahs (sic) invade the forum looking for a buzz. Seems google searches landed them here on TeaChat. It was so bad that we finally had to remove the topic from the general forum and out of google bots sight.

[MadeForTeaVea]

REALLY!?!? I had no idea that it was a popular thing. Like I said, my only run in with it was when I saw it listed on some "natural" cigarettes and my friend told me he read an article about it.

I find it very bizarre because I don't think it would be neither good tasting, good for you, or even give you a buzz. I'm not sure what chemical tea would contained that would actually make it desirable to smoke.

Sheesh, kids now days.

[Chip]

Most likely from breathing CO versus CO2.

At one time, it was the most hit topic on the forum, half by smokin anything heads and half by tea drinkers who took some offences at the interluders ... Oil and vinegar.

[Kunkali]

Seems that eating the leaves might upset sensitive stomachs