Crack patterns for visual marble effect - marble vs spider vs splash and how each affects flavor penetration.
Pick a crack pattern, egg count, tea, and steep time. The card explains what each pattern produces and gives tea quantities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.