What do you do with what’s left in your cup? Customers often ask if there anything they can do with their leftover tea leaves. Here are a few suggestions that are healthful and happy!
Neutralizing Odors With Tea Leaves
Pretty much anything stinky can benefit from some tea leaves.
Bathrooms
Utility Rooms
Garage
Refrigerator
Oven
Shoes
Green Tea & Odor
Green leaves are especially good at neutralizing odor. Your chai teas are nicer for leaving a pleasant aroma behind.
The compound catechin makes green tea an excellent oxidant and also happens to be an antibacterial odor fighter. Green tea leaves can be used in musty or damp places to help fight bacterial growth and odor.
Use Tea Leaves in Your Garden to Help Plants Grow
Tea leaves have lots of nutrients that can help add to tired soil. We love to compost our tea leaves. Some tea leaves you can put straight into pots, but be careful to check the combination. Some plants, like orchids, are very picky. We leave them alone.
Tea Leaves & Beauty/Skincare
Tea leaves, even used tea leaves can give off a pleasant aroma. Suggestions for tea leaves and self-care:
Use tea leaves in the bath
Drink tea while in the bath :)
Use green tea leaves to reduce puffiness around your eyes and tighten skin
Tea Leaves & Art Projects
This is probably our most explored area of tea leaf use. We love repurposing used tea leaves in art projects! You can use leftover tea leaves to add texture and whimsy. Add a sprinkle of leftover dried tea to:
Cards
Scrapbooks
To color fabric or paper
Clay
Post
You can dry and flatten the leaves in a book if you need them to be flat.
Here's one art project we worked on with leftover tea leaves from our caffeine free, rooibos chai tea, UniversiTea.
The Smell Good Clay Pot
Take used leaves and crush them with a mortar and pestle to make a paste. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can place the tea in a plastic bag and crush with a hammer or stainless steel bowl.
Work the paste into some air dry clay.
Form into whatever shape you want. You can let the clay dry or bake it in the oven at a low temperature (follow the directions on for your type of clay). Then you can leave the outside plain or decorate it with paint, sequins, buttons, or glitter-whatever you want. Have fun creating.
We rolled out a circle on wax paper and then wrapped it around a cup to create a beautiful scalloped cup.
The UniversiTea chai tea gave the clay a nice texture and color, not to mention a great smell!
With the help of a skilled 3-year old, we were able to get highly creative paint jobs on some of the pots.
We hope you found this information useful and a little amusing!
Please don't hesitate to reach out to us about any of our online products or visit us at our store in Dahlonega, GA. We would love to pour you a cup!
Happy sipping!
Shop In-Store
10 South Chestatee, Ste. A
Dahlonega, GA 30533
Shop for Tea Online
https://www.myvintagegypsyteas.com/
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