There are certain memories I have of my childhood that are more vivid than most. I remember my mom used to spend an entire day stewing an astronomical amount of food to eat that same night and many more nights to follow. It was usually things like seaweed, tofu, different parts of a pig (ear, tongue), and occasionally she would throw in a few hard boiled eggs and let them soak up all the flavors the previous occupants of the stewing liquid imparted.
Those eggs weren't the exact same thing as these tea eggs, they weren't delicately cracked to create a perfect marbled pattern (my mom is far too practical for that), and I don't actually think the stewing liquid she used had any tea in it, but the other aromatics were very similar. The first time I made tea eggs myself, the smell elicited an overwhelming feeling of childhood nostalgia. So even though they're not the exact same thing I ate growing up, they're pretty darn close.
