What do you do with your leaves?
After one tea tasting someone said that tea leaves can be used for composting or to just put a atop potted plants to help retain moisture.
Now I just moved to a dry climate, and before I knew it one after another wilted to the point of no return and just died. So hearing this tip I bought a new plant and tried this tip, and it really works! I don’t need to water every single day and my plant actually seems to be thriving.
Before I found out this tip I always felt that I could do something else with all the tea leaves, I even wanted to started composting so that I could just not waste them. I grew up around plants and now it feels really barren that I don’t have as many around me. However there weren’t any composers small enough for an apartment patio.
So tea has given me a chance to have plants again, and I think my plants really enjoy tea as well. Haha. At the tea tasting I got the idea that all spent leaves shouldn’t be used with plants, but he didn’t really specify so I have been mostly using pure tea leaves and refraining from using the spent leaves of tea blends.
So that is how I use my leaves, anyone else have a cool use for their tea leaves?
I know a lot of people cook with their leaves. When the Seven Cups here in Denver closed its doors, they had a party, and someone brought pastries infused with golden buds black tea, and topped it with golden buds-flavored whipped cream. It was delicious!
There are some counter top composters that might work for you if you are just using the compost for house plants. America’s Test Kitchen just did a review on counter top composters, you might want to check them out. Some hold as much as 3 gallons of scraps.
I put my tea leaves into my composter (along with free coffee grounds from the local coffee shop). I think my plants do so well because they can no longer sleep from all of the caffeine . . . . if they’re going to be up all night, they might as well produce veggies!
Yeah I looked for a kitchen composer, and the person at my local Lowe’s gave me a weird look as if he never heard one before. Another person just sent me to wander the kitchen appliances for like thirty minutes.
I really want to compost, I feel bad just throwing away my extra bits of vegetables and fruit when it can do more than just sitting in a plastic bag in a landfill or something.
If you shop online, google “kitchen composter” (I think the Eco one is the one that ATK rated the best for stability and containing odor). Googl-ing (or bing-ing, or whatever) countertop composter, gives you smaller cannisters.
I know what you mean about throwing away stuff that can be broken down for use in the garden - or containers, if that’s all you have available.
I have a garden, so have two large composters “out back” - but I collect organics in the kitchen to supplement the yard trash that also goes into my composter.
I have a garden, so have a couple of large outdoor composters, but I keep a
I dump my teapot full of spent leaves off the back porch(!), no kidding, and there are rose bushes nearby which is where I am told tea leaves can be scattered to make a good rose fertilizer. I guess I’m just too lazy to go down the steps and pour there. lol
same, I throw mine on our roses out the front of our house, same with the coffee grounds. Seems to work well :)
Fortuitously, the first plant in my front yard is a Camellia japonica. I joke to my boyfriend that it feels like I’m burying its first cousins at the foot of my camellia. I’m hoping the tea leaves will add to the soil acidity as well as acting as mulch. (also admitting I have eaten the green leaves of brewed Genmaicha.)
I toss mine, but living in a dorm, there’s not much else I can do, especially with the volume of leaves I have. I suppose I could stick them in the flowerbeds, but I’m not sure B&G would be too chuffed with that.
Tea can be used to make moon cake or dessert. Meanwhile, in Hangzhou, there is a delicious dish, which made by Longjing tea and shrimp. Expect used for composting, the brewed tea leaves also can:
Creating a Tea Pillow
Using Tea For Eye Fatigue
Tea For Healthy Teeth
If you are interested, more details can be seen in this link: http://www.teavivre.com/info/uses-for-tea/
Thanks so much for the link. I definitely won’t run out of tea leaves to use with as much tea as I drink.
Oh, I want to make a tea pillow! Right now we compost the leaves. Hubby’s new hobby is vermiculture and composting. You should see the look on his face and how big his eyes get when he asks, “How many days worth of leaves is this?” One, sweetie, but remember there are three of us home all day drinking tea! :)
For spent puerh tea leaves (even after the 5th infusion), I recently tried to put them in a jar with hisbiscus petals and I cold brew them overnight to make myself a citrusy black iced tea! Perfect! Now there is no turning back, I am never buying bottled iced tea again now that I know I can make my own at home, and the possibilities are endless.
We can’t compost at my house… or else fruit flies invade like an army. (as in, you can’t even see the countertop or out the window for the wall of flies)
I’d so love to use my tea leaves like this!
Yeah that is my worry, the fruit flies, I have a patio, but another thing I worry about is roaches finding the bin.
Yup! they’re resourceful creatures, with super sensitive noses. About as smart as a three year old child, or so I’m told! they’re all over the place in my area.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.