On having more tea than you can drink.

People know I love tea so they give it to me. Right now I've got 4 big tins of loose leaf tea, half a gift box, a jar of cheap Pu'er, at least 3 boxes of miscellaneous tea bags, and a bunch of random samples. Some of it is more than a year old.

It's too much tea for one person to drink and it's slowly going stale. I'm trying to balance by drinking most expensive and oldest first, but I'm fighting a losing battle. It doesn't help that one pinch of the loose leaf is good for multiple cups.

What do you guys do? Redistribute? Throw out? Shove your oldest teas in the back of the cupboard and try to forget about them? Manage not to accumulate so much tea?

When you say it's going stale--does this mean years of storage? Properly stored tea ought to be good for a couple years at least.

If you cook, you could try using it in some recipes. I've used spiced tea in cookies and green tea in cake, and prepared chicken with Lapsang Souchong. I've also been led to make rice with green tea due to a lovely Japanese movie by Yasujiro Ozu, Taste of green tea over rice.

All of my tea is still good, but some of it is just not quite as tasty as when I got it. That I have years is encouraging though.

Cooking with tea is a great idea! I've made earl grey cookies before that were good.

Some interesting ideas I want to try are jasmine tea rice, tea eggs, oatmeal made with tea, tea poached fruit, and a Japanese soup that is basically tea with rice and toppings (two of which you mention).

The tea eggs I've had before weren't very good, but maybe they'll be better if I make them myself.

Oh, I've had great tea eggs but I never prepared them myself. As far as I remember, the tea affected the appearance of the eggs more than the taste--striating them interestingly under the shell.

If you hit upon something especially tasty, please share! I didn't follow any particular recipe for "green tea over rice", just sloshed some tea over steamed rice, so don't know to this day whether there's a trick to it. The punchline in the movie was that it was a humble dish such as the husband preferred to the painstaking delicacies his wife thought she owed him.

What I came up with were:
1. Tea bath (Using a sachet bag, pack loose leaf tea and pop it in the bath water.)
2. Roast them with an aromatherapy diffuser to enjoy the aroma
3. Tea egg

not much huh...

Drink more tea obviously!
Invite people around to sociably drink more tea too - and just hope they don't all turn up with more tea.

Two tea packets left unsupervised in a drawer do tend to mate and multiply :)

With very few exceptions, I'll drink old leaves without any reservations. When it loses its muscle, I use it for sun tea (for the days when it doesn't matter as long as it's cold) or doctor up with additives--milk, syrups, mint, etc.

Your best plan is to have grandchildren and teach them the pleasures of tea parties. They each need their own teapots to 'spill' or they will squabble about turns. Demitasse cups are the perfect size for little hands.

I think the problem is very similar to the issue of having far more unread books than anyone's lifetime will allow. For most of us (i.e. not those given tea mostly as presents) it probably indicates an unconscious desire to live for ever.

>11 CliffordDorset:

If Borges was right and Heaven is a library, then that other place is not. So, I'm packing for the trip. ;)

I've used up elderly tea bags dyeing paper for art projects.

I suggest a large tea party.

I once had a very delicious tea ice cream at Pure T, Polk Street, San Francisco. They are probably long gone, but I don't think it is difficult to make. Just brew some very strong tea (great for getting rid of a lot of oldish tea) and mix it into the ice as you freeze it.

Miniature landscaping. Tea leaves and coffee grounds make a good looking mulch for the gardens around your dollhouse.

Compost. People give me tea, too, and I always try it, but if I don't like it (rooiboos, ugh!) it goes straight in the compost. I tried taking the extra to work to share, but most of my colleagues are either coffee fiends or only allowed decaf, so the tea I brought didn't get used there either.

I put used coffee grounds/tea grounds in a potted palm at the office and it bloomed for the first time ever. Quite interesting.

Many people like to age tea. Here are a couple of references:

Aging tea.
Thoughts on aging tea.

Someone's already mentioned dying paper with tea, but tea can be used to dye fabric as well. Just dump the cloth in a sinkful of tea & leave it there until it's turned the shade you want it; no fixative needed.

I know homeless shelters and kitchens would totally appreciate having tea to add to their cupboards.

Also, food banks. This is a huge gift for their food distribution for low income recipients.

Anywhere meals or tea breaks are provided for program/course participants .

Great opportunities for generosity...

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prepared chicken with Lapsang Souchong

I've done tea-smoked duck with Lapsang. It's absolutely awesome. No other seasoning required.