How to Dry Used Tea Leaves

The Japanese have been dealing with used tea leaves for so long that they even have a name: chagara (茶殻).

If you brew loose-leaf tea daily, you’ll also find yourself discarding a lot of steeped leaves.

Did you know that steeped tea leaves can be reused?

I’m not talking about steeping (which you should already be doing to make use of your tea leaves fully), but rather finding other services for tea leaves that you would otherwise throw away.

There are two general ways to start reusing tea leaves:

Using the right after steeping them

Drying them first

In this post, we’ll explore the drying method.

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Drying tea leaves

Steeped tea leaves dry tea leaves last longer and is easy to use. After you finish reading this article, you’ll be drying tea leaves effortlessly!

The main ways to dry tea leaves are by drying them under the sun (slowest), drying in an oven (faster) and using a microwave (fastest).

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Drying with sunlight

steeped tea leaves on a paper towel, place the leaves on a flat surface, preferably with a paper towel/cloth under them. It’s easy, but it could take a lot of time depending on the temperature and weather.

Drying in an oven
Place the tea leaves on a cookie sheet and use the lowest temperature possible. Keep checking to make sure that you don’t accidentally burn the leaves.

In my case, it took about an hour.

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Drying in a microwave

drying tea leaves in the microwave is the fastest method I always use.

First, put a paper towel on a plate, then spread the tea leaves as evenly as possible.

I used a small amount of steeped tea leaves (about a third of leftover leaves for a cup of sencha, I ate the rest 🙂 ), but you can use much more.

Place another paper towel on the leaves and put the plate inside your microwave. The paper towels will absorb the moisture evaporated from the tea leaves.

Use the microwave for 1 minute, and then check if the leaves are dry or not. Repeat this procedure for 30-second increments until the leaves become dry.

You’ll burn the leaves if you overdo it, so be careful.

Dried tea leaves this time it took me 2 minutes.

You’ll find that the required time changes depending on the power of your microwave and the number of tea leaves.

The dry leaves will crumble easily, but that’s ok. You can also store your dried leaves in a container if you don’t use them the same day.

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How to use your dried tea leaves

Dried tea leaves have two primary uses:

As for seasoning for food

Sprinkle the dried leaves onto food as you would with herbs and spices. It adds a nice touch, plus it’s low in calories!

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As deodorizer

Dried tea leaves naturally absorb odours. Like baking soda, you can place the leaves in a small bowl, and they will deodorize on their own.

For example, you could use them to absorb smells from the refrigerator, bathroom and even the oven after cooking.

Put dried tea leaves on an ashtray, your cat’s litter box or inside your shoes.

Also, try sprinkling the leaves on the rug, let them deodorize for a while, and vacuum them.

There are endless ways to use your dried tea leaves. How will you be using them?

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