Pick a crack pattern, egg count, tea, and steep time. The card explains what each pattern produces and gives tea quantities.
Why this exists
Tea egg marbling varies from barely visible to looks like a map. The pattern comes from how you crack the shell, not the tea. Most recipes say tap gently without explaining the resulting visual difference. Spider vs marble produces dramatically different visual results even with identical steep time.
Who this is for
Anyone whose tea eggs came out plain brown with no marbling. Cooks preparing for dim sum brunches. People who want visual variety in their batch.
How to read the result
Marbling = where tea penetrates through cracks. More small cracks = more marbling. A single sharp crack = a single dark line, not marble. Splash pattern mixes both for a natural-looking crackle. Lines work well for serving sliced where each piece shows a stripe.
Honest limitations
Older eggs peel easier. Use eggs that are 4-7 days old. Brand of black tea matters more than steep time; cheap Lipton gives flat flavor; real Chinese black tea (Lapsang Souchong) gives smoky depth.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What are the common mistakes when using Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer?
Most common mistakes come down to four habits: entering 20 when the field expects 0.2 because the field is a percentage; leaving a field blank and accepting the default without checking what it stands for; changing one input and reading a result that was calculated before the change; and quoting the output as an exact figure when the page describes it as a reference estimate. Press calculate again after any edit, and treat the number as a reference point rather than a final answer.
How do I read the result from Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer?
Read the final figure first, then come back to this section for the conditions behind it: Marbling = where tea penetrates through cracks. More small cracks = more marbling. A single sharp crack = a single dark line, not marble. Splash pattern mixes both for a natural-looking crackle. Lines work well for serving sliced where each piece shows a strip Keep two things apart: the number itself, which comes from the values you typed, and the assumptions it depends on, which decide whether that number is meaningful. The page sets out what a higher or lower result means for your case, so check that direction as well as the magnitude.
Can I act on the Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer result directly?
Treat it as one reference sheet before you decide, rather than as the answer itself: Older eggs peel easier. Use eggs that are 4-7 days old. Brand of black tea matters more than steep time; cheap Lipton gives flat flavor; real Chinese black tea (Lapsang Souchong) gives smoky depth. The output describes a magnitude under the conditions you entered. It does not include what it actually costs to act, what might change while you act, or how the other side behaves. Before you commit, compare the result against reality and note which assumptions do not hold where you are.
What inputs does Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer need?
Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer takes 3 inputs: Eggs、Tea Black tea (standard) Oolong (lighter) Pu-erh (deep)、Steep hours 2h (light) 4h (standard) 8h (deep, overnight). They are listed in the order they feed the calculation, so an earlier value can change a later one. Do not skip a field you do not recognise - work out what it means first, because a silently guessed value produces a number that looks reasonable and is not. Before typing anything, make sure every figure uses the same unit and the same time period.
What should I check before I run Tea Egg Crack Pattern Designer?
Three checks pay for themselves. First, confirm the question you need answered is really inside the scope of this tool rather than a neighbouring one. Second, confirm that the figures you have are drawn from the same source and the same period - mixing monthly and annual numbers, or two different definitions of the same quantity, quietly distorts the result. Third, keep the key inputs written down, so that later you can tell which set of numbers produced a figure you are about to quote.
Why no marbling? Cracked too gently, or steeped too short.
Why are my eggs rubbery? Over-boiled. 8 minutes hard boil, not 12.
Can I reuse the tea? Once. After a steep it is spent.