The full method

1. Brew it twice as strong as you would drink it12 g to 600 ml is one to fifty — nearly twice the strength you would drink. The powder, sugar and dairy will bury a delicate brew, so aim for something slightly astringent on its own. Water around 90 °C; GABA tea takes heat well. Press the leaves as you strain — the last drops are the strongest.
2. Kill the heat at the first small bubblesStir continuously as it reheats; the powder sinks and clumps. Cut the heat when small bubbles appear at the rim, around 85 °C — do not let it boil. A rolling boil drives off the aroma and leaves the astringency. If it does clump, one pass through a sieve fixes it; no need to start again.
3. Cool at room temperature before it goes in the fridgeChilled while hot, condensation forms on the surface and drips back, leaving a slack layer on top. Let it come down to hand-warm — about thirty minutes — then cover and refrigerate at least four hours, ideally overnight. Rinse the moulds with cold water and do not dry them; it unmoulds far more cleanly.

Watch out for

• Setting strength varies a lot between brands. First time round, follow the liquid quantity on the packet and simply swap the water for tea.
• No GABA tea? Honey-scented black or Ruby 18 go in a similar tart direction. High-mountain oolong is too delicate to stand up to the sugar.
• A teaspoon of the reserved tea over the top just before eating lifts the whole thing. Our suggestion, not in the original.

The full method

1. Make a paste with the syrup firstTipped straight onto ice, the powder balls up and stays lumpy however long you blend. Work it into a smooth paste with the syrup first, then add it. Thirty seconds of work, and it decides whether the drink comes out evenly green. Matcha or ground sencha both work; ground whole leaf leaves grit and needs sieving.
2. Blend in two goes, not one long onePulse first — one or two seconds at a time — until the ice is coarse, then run it continuously for ten to fifteen seconds to bring it together. One long blend heats the motor, the ice melts, and you get green tea juice rather than granita. Stop as soon as a steady vortex forms.
3. Set your own sweetness; 30 ml is a starting pointThirty ml to 400 g of ice is on the sweet side, which suits a strong matcha. With ordinary sencha powder start at 20 ml and adjust after blending — it tastes less sweet frozen than melted, because cold suppresses sweetness, so allow for that when you taste. For a creamier texture, swap a third of the ice for frozen milk cubes.

Watch out for

• The vanilla is a pinch. More than that buries the tea, and the tea is the point.
• Drink it straight away. Left more than ten minutes it separates, water on top and ice below.
• No ice crusher: bag the ice and break it with a rolling pin before using a jug blender. Whole cubes will chip the blades.

The full method

1. Melt the butter and let it cool before it goes inHot butter cooks the eggs on contact and leaves flecks in the batter that fry into grit. Melt it, let it come down to about 40 °C, then pour it in while stirring. Add the sugar in two goes; the eggs whip paler and hold a ribbon more easily that way.
2. Sift the tea powder with the flourThree grams of tea to 150 g of flour reads clearly without turning bitter. Sift it with the flour, baking powder and salt so it cannot clump. The fine leaf from tea bags is the easiest source; whole leaf needs grinding to flour fineness or it scratches. Stop mixing the moment the dry streaks vanish — overwork it and the gluten makes them tough.
3. Turn when the bubbles pop, not when the clock saysHeat the pan on low to medium-low — a drop of water should hiss, not dance. Bubbles rise as it sets; wait until they burst and the holes stay open, roughly two to three minutes, before turning. Too early and the middle runs out; too late and the base is scorched. The second side needs only thirty seconds to a minute, and it is normal for it not to colour.

Watch out for

• Rest the batter fifteen minutes before cooking; the flour hydrates and the crumb comes out noticeably finer. Our suggestion, not in the original.
• The first one always fails. That is the pan telling you its temperature — do not change the recipe because of it.
• Serve with honey-scented black tea or Ruby 18. Ruby carries cinnamon and mint of its own, which sit well against butter.

The full method

1. Brew it strong, cool it, then marinateEight grams of jasmine to about 200 ml of 90 °C water, five minutes, strained. Cool it completely before the meat goes in — warm liquid sets the surface, keeps the marinade out and invites bacteria. Add about a teaspoon of sugar and half of salt; a spoon of rice wine and a few slices of ginger are welcome. Thirty minutes is right. Past two hours the tannins draw the meat dry and stringy.
2. Pat the meat dry before you coat itThe pork comes out of the marinade wet, and coating it wet turns the starch to paste that slides off in the oil. Blot it with kitchen paper first. Keep the starch layer thin and knock off the excess; same with the flour. Egg goes last, clinging to the flour. For extra crunch, add breadcrumbs after the egg — our suggestion, not in the original.
3. About 170 °C, and one piece at a timeAim for 165–175 °C: a scrap of batter should sink halfway, rise, and fizz gently. Too many pieces at once drops the temperature and the coating soaks up oil. A one-centimetre slice takes three and a half to four minutes; rest it three minutes so the carry-over heat finishes the job. For extra crispness, a fifteen-second second fry at around 190 °C.

Watch out for

• Throw the used marinade away. It has raw meat juices in it.
• Swap the jasmine for a light Wenshan pouchong if you want a finer floral note. A heavily roasted Tieguanyin turns bitter here.
• Loin, cut against the grain, one centimetre thick is the easiest to handle. Thinner overcooks; thicker stays raw inside.

The full method

1. Dry the potato out completelyDice to about 1.5 cm, start in cold salted water, and boil ten to twelve minutes — pull them when a skewer goes through but still meets slight resistance. Drain, then return to the dry pan over low heat for fifteen seconds to steam off the surface water; this is what stops the salad going watery later. Season while still warm for far better flavour, but wait until it is no longer hot before the mayonnaise, or it will split.
2. Press the oil out of the tunaPress the lid down and pour the oil off, then flake the fish with a fork. Tuna in brine suits this better than tuna in oil, since mayonnaise is coming — too much fat and the tea disappears. Keep a teaspoon of the tin oil to stir back in for aroma if you like; discard the rest.
3. Mix the tea into the mayonnaise firstSprinkled straight on, the powder forms green lumps. Beat the two teaspoons into the mayonnaise in a small bowl until completely smooth, then fold it through. A teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar and a few turns of black pepper give it dimension. Chill at least thirty minutes: the astringency needs time to marry with the mayonnaise. Eaten immediately it tastes like two separate things.

Watch out for

• Two teaspoons is a lot. Start with one — once the tea turns bitter there is no going back.
• Half a cucumber, finely chopped, and a boiled egg add a lot of texture.
• Eat within two days. Potato dressed with mayonnaise does not keep.

The full method

1. Keep the three infusions separate — they do different jobsTwenty grams to water at 95 °C: two minutes, then three, then five — about 1,200 ml in total. The first infusion is the strongest and most aromatic; save it for the finish. The second and third go to the marinade and the stock. The reason for splitting them is simple: aroma does not survive a long simmer, and after an hour only astringency is left.
2. Throw the blanching water awayStart the chicken in cold water with two slices of ginger and a spoon of rice wine; once it boils, skim the scum and give it two more minutes, then lift it out and rinse under warm water. That water cannot become your stock — the blood and impurities are all in it. Soak the rinsed chicken in the second infusion for ten to twenty minutes. This is what takes the smell away; longer and the meat goes stringy.
3. Astragalus early, goji lateAstragalus and jujube go in with the chicken, covered with the third infusion plus water. Bring to the boil, drop to a bare simmer — small bubbles, no rolling — and give it fifty to sixty minutes. Goji berries go in for the last ten only; earlier and they disintegrate, oversweetening the broth and turning it sour. Salt at the very end; early salt tightens the meat. Finish with two tablespoons of the reserved first infusion and do not cook it further — that splash is the whole aroma.

Watch out for

• Astragalus and jujube are medicinal herbs. If you are pregnant, on medication or managing a chronic condition, ask a doctor or a Chinese medicine practitioner first.
• GABA tea carries a pronounced sourness. Drop to 15 g the first time you make it.
• Better the next day. Cool, refrigerate, lift off the set fat and reheat.

The full method

1. Marinate overnight, then air-dry for two hoursClean and dry the duck, rub salt, five-spice, Sichuan pepper and rice wine inside and out, and refrigerate overnight — eight to twelve hours. Then hang it in a draught, or point a fan at it, for two hours, until the skin feels dry and taut. Do not skip this. Moisture on the skin turns the smoke into a bitter tar that sits on the surface instead of colouring or flavouring anything.
2. Line the pot with foil — you will want it backUse a heavy, deep pot or wok with a lid. Line the inside with two layers of foil before adding the sugar, rice and tea — a cup of each, mixed and spread flat. Burnt sugar and rice set into a black crust that will effectively ruin the pot. The rack must sit at least five centimetres above the mix; the duck must not touch it, or those spots char. Seal the gap between lid and rim with a damp cloth or a rope of dough so the smoke stays in.
3. Start the clock when it smokes, and leave the lid aloneHeat on high until white smoke escapes the seam — five to eight minutes — and only then start timing; drop to medium-low. A whole duck takes one to two hours; ninety minutes for a mid-sized bird. Every peek costs you ten minutes of lost heat and smoke, and the moment you lift it a cloud comes straight out. To check: a thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh should read 75 °C, or the juices should run clear when pierced. Red-brown skin is right; near-black means the heat was too high.

Watch out for

• Run the extractor and shut the kitchen door. There is a lot of smoke, and it may set off the alarm.
• For a first attempt use duck legs or half a chicken: shorter, and much cheaper to get wrong.
• Any black tea will do for the smoke: broken leaf, stems, tea past its best. This is the best use there is for old tea.

The full method

1. Open it so the skin stays a bowlCut a lid off the top and leave the rest of the skin intact, scooping the flesh out with a spoon along the inner wall so the skin stays a complete bowl. Keep as much of the white pith as you can: it is bitter now, but it is where the returning sweetness comes from after ageing. Deseed the flesh, strip the tough membrane, and weigh it with its juice — the tea weight is that figure times 0.8 to 0.9.
2. Bake the flesh and tea together until half dryMix the broken tea with the flesh and juice, spread it on a tray, and bake at 80–90 °C for one to two hours, turning two or three times, until the leaf has drunk up the juice and feels damp but not wet. Too dry and it will not pack; too wet and it moulds later. Never go above 100 °C — pomelo aroma is volatile, and overheating leaves only a burnt note.
3. Nine steamings: this is where the weeks goPack it back in tight, with no air pockets, replace the lid and sew it with cotton thread, or bind the whole fruit firmly in cloth. Then one cycle: steam hard for one to two hours, then dry at 60 °C for eight to twelve hours, or a full day in the sun. Repeat the cycle six to nine times, which takes two to three weeks. Each round shrinks it, hardens it and darkens it, until you have what looks like a black-brown stone, solid when tapped. It is done when it feels distinctly light in the hand and the surface is dry, not tacky.

Watch out for

• Store somewhere cool and dry. It improves with age. Shave a sliver off to brew.
• If it smells sour or shows white mould at any point, throw the whole thing away. Do not try to cut it out.
• The hardest recipe here. Try it in winter the first time — low humidity makes the drying far more forgiving.

The full method

1. Everything must be bone dry before it goes inRinse the herbs and petals, then spread them out to air-dry for a full day, or dry them at 60 °C for thirty minutes — they must feel entirely free of moisture. A single drop of raw water can cloud the jar and grow a film. Scald the jar with boiling water and let it drain upside down. The tea does not need washing; add it last, sitting on top, which makes it easier to lift out later.
2. The spirit must cover everything by two centimetresA plain vodka around 40 % is ideal. The liquid must stand at least two centimetres above the solids; anything poking out oxidises and blackens. Seal it and keep it somewhere cool and dark — not the fridge, and not in sunlight. Shake once a day for the first three days so everything takes up the spirit, then leave it alone. Around day seven the colour turns amber, which is normal.
3. After straining, wait another weekAfter two or three weeks, strain twice, through a fine sieve and then a coffee filter, until it runs clear. Tea left past three weeks turns astringent, so strain on time rather than forgetting about it. Dilute with an equal volume of cooled boiled water, bringing it to about 20 % , then seal and rest for a week. That week is for the water and spirit to come back together — freshly diluted it tastes watery, and a week later it does not.

Watch out for

• Contains alcohol. Not for minors, during pregnancy or breastfeeding, while on medication, or before driving. American ginseng and astragalus are medicinal herbs — ask a doctor before drinking it regularly.
• A roasted Dongding or Tieguanyin holds up best against the spirit. A light high-mountain tea just disappears.
• The original table says “23 roses”; that is a typo for two or three. Twenty-three would make the whole jar taste of rose.

The full method

1. Blunt end up, because of the air cellThere is an air cell in the blunt end. Point it up and the expanding air pushes upward, so the shell is far less likely to split. Upside down, the cell is trapped below and cracking becomes much more likely. Use eggs at room temperature; straight from the fridge into the oven and the shock alone will crack them. Wipe the shells with a dry cloth rather than washing them — washing removes the protective bloom and shortens their life.
2. The three stages each do a different job85 °C for four hours: a slow rise that sets the egg while driving moisture out of the leaf. 100 °C for four hours: the white sets completely and the aromatic compounds in the tea become active enough to cross the shell. 90 °C for ten hours: long, low dehydration; the yolk contracts to a sandy texture and the finished egg keeps at room temperature. Do not open the oven mid-way — each opening costs forty degrees and twenty minutes of recovery, and the rhythm is gone.
3. What success looks like: no rattle, amber insideCool it naturally for four hours. No sloshing when you shake it means enough moisture has gone. Peeled, the white should be a translucent pale amber with obvious spring, the yolk deep yellow to orange and sandy, smelling of tea without bitterness. Black or bitter white means the heat was too high — drop the second stage to 95 °C next time. The commonest cause of failure is an oven whose real temperature does not match its dial. An oven thermometer inside is worth more than trusting the panel.

Watch out for

• Eighteen hours is not cheap to run. Use a small oven and fill it — do not do six eggs.
• Use dried spent leaf or stems — the best possible use for tea waste. The leaf can be used once more after baking.
• Keeps about a week at room temperature, two weeks refrigerated. Discard at any sign of sliminess or off smell.