10 Ways to Cook with Tea

There’s nothing like authentic tea-smoked duck, but the smoking process can overwhelm many home kitchens. Enter “smoked tea duck”—using lapsang souchong tea and uncooked rice to make a smoky, crispy crust for duck breast, which is then pan-fried in its own fat.

Recipe: Smoked Tea Duck

Think of these roasted cut butternut squash rounds as tiny homemade pizzas: You bake them and add any topping you like. They tend to go fast at parties.

Recipe: Rooibos Butternut “Pizzettas”

The cabbage and the mushrooms simmer in brewed genmaicha until tender, absorbing the delicate, toasty tea. The tea leaf–crusted tofu deepens those flavors.

Recipe: Crisp Genmaicha Tofu with Shiitakes and Savoy Cabbage

Feel free to use other vegetables. And if you have extra broth, simmer more vegetables in it the next day for a nearly instant soup.

Recipe: Jasmine Chicken Soup with Green Tea Soba

Use this quick version of Japanese dashi (soup stock) to deglaze pans, for soup, and to make rice (use half water, half dashi).

Recipe: Darjeeling Dashi

I grew up inhaling whoopie pies, bless my mother’s soul. Although I would like to offer her recipe, I’m afraid that just reading the quantity of trans fats (Crisco) called for might incite cardiac arrest! This healthier version tastes even better.

Recipe: Matcha Whoopie Pies

These cookies may look humble, but they have a wonderfully complex flavor, thanks to the chai (Indian spiced tea) seasonings: cinnamon, ginger, fennel, and cardamom. The shortbread dough gives them a crisp, buttery texture.

Recipe: Chai-Spiced Shortbread Cookies

This is one of our favorite New Year’s resolution recipes: it’s loaded with antioxidants, is easy to make, and it tastes delicious, too. Slurp down one of these and you’ll have the energy you need for a nice long hike or bike ride.

Recipe: Cran-Berry Green-Tea Smoothie

For a refreshing dessert after a rich winter dinner, try this gorgeous sorbet (use thawed frozen blackberries). It’s wonderful in summer, too, during blackberry season.

Recipe: Blackberry-Black Tea Sorbet

Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and ginger–typical spices for chai (Indian-style black tea)—are mixed with walnuts and tart dried cherries to make a sensational topper for oatmeal.

Recipe: Chai-Cherry Walnuts

Jasmine (China)

Most often made with green tea; scented with jasmine flowers. Aromatic and elegant.

Black tea from the northern part of the country. Delicate, complex.

Black tea that’s been smoked to varying degrees, most often over green pine wood or needles. Powerfully smoky and fragrant.

A green tea mixed with toasted brown rice (aka brown rice tea). Sometimes the rice kernel inverts during toasting, creating popcornlike bits. Nutty and earthy.

Green tea ground to a jade green powder. Keep chilled, airtight, because it’s extremely perishable. Sweet, floral, and velvety smooth.

The dried leaves of a native South African shrub, it’s technically an herbal tea. Fruity and mild; sometimes called red tea.