Five spice tea eggs are very common in China.  If you go to the country side, you will likely find them at the corners of the streets on the vendor stands. It is the type of snack that everybody likes.
And making them is easy as well. Here are the steps:
1. 10 eggs, cover them in water, bring to boil. Continue to boil for 8 minutes with medium heat.
2. Get rid of the water. Wait the eggs to be cool. Crack the egg shells (so that it will have cool cracking patterns on the egg after it is done.) Note: don’t peel the egg shells.
3. Cover the eggs in water. Adding 1.5 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 2 cloves, 1 star anise, 1 teaspoon five spice powder, one pinch of tea leaves. Bring to boil.  Then simmer it for 30 minutes.
4. Peel the eggshells and enjoy.
Note: The longer you leave them soaking in the sauce after the simmering, the stronger the flavour. You can leave them in the sauce in the refrigerator.
It is yummy and both my boys love it!
Five spice tea eggs
Yum. Why both light and dark soy sauce? Why not just some amount of one or a different amount of the other (depending on what you have?)
Regardless, sounds tasty.
Good question! Light soy sauce is for the flavour. Dark soy sauce is more for the color. I think it won’t taste as good if you use dark soy sauce only. But if you use light soy sauce only, it might still taste good. But I have never tried that.
I have a pot of these simmering on the stove right now. I have never worked with this combination of ingredients, so I really have no idea what it will taste like. Thanks for the recipe, I’m excited to try something so different that what I usually eat.