Tea is China's national drink and a popular beverage worldwide. It's well known that drinking tea has excellent health care benefits, but did you know that tea leaves actually have many other uses? Today, we'll talk about some little secrets of tea leaves.

1. New clothes or fabrics usually have a pungent, unpleasant smell caused by dyes. If not removed, this can be very uncomfortable to wear. Grab a handful of tea leaves and burn them, using the smoke to eliminate the odor.

2. After eating particularly spicy peppers, if your mouth is burning unbearably, first rinse with clean water, then chew some dry tea leaves to remove the spicy sensation.

3. Used tea leaves can be used to boil eggs, resulting in a fragrant and delicious taste.

4. After eating raw onions or garlic, chew some used tea leaves in your mouth for a while to eliminate the odor of onions and garlic.

5. Soak meat in a 5% concentration of good tea water for a while before refrigerating. This not only improves meat preservation but also prevents it from spoiling easily.

6. When cooking beef, in addition to various seasonings, you can add a small bag of ordinary tea leaves and cook together with the beef. The beef will cook faster and have a fresh aroma.

7. While watching TV, drinking a cup of tea can effectively resist harmful rays emitted by TV picture tubes. Tea can also stop the formation of nitrites, which are gastric cancer triggers.

8. Using tea to quit smoking: People who need to rely on smoking to refresh themselves might try replacing cigarettes with tea, with Oolong tea being most effective for quitting smoking.

9. If your cooking pan has a fishy smell, first wipe it with soaked tea leaves, then rinse with clean water to remove the fishy odor.

10. Put 50 grams of scented tea into a gauze bag and place it in the refrigerator to eliminate odors. After a month, take the tea leaves out and sun-dry them, then put them back into the gauze bag and into the refrigerator. This can be reused multiple times with good deodorizing effect.

11. Bury fresh eggs in clean, dry tea residue and store in a cool, dry place. The eggs can be preserved for about 2-3 months without spoiling.

12. Put dried used tea leaves into nylon stockings, then put them into smelly shoes. The tea leaves can absorb moisture in the shoes and eliminate odor. The amount of tea needed for adult shoes is about one cup.

13. For containers with fishy odors, boil used tea leaves in them for a few minutes to remove the fishy smell.

14. For greasy stains on kitchenware, wipe several times with fresh wet tea residue to remove the grease. If there's no fresh wet tea residue, use dry tea residue soaked in hot water to wipe off the grease.

15. For painted doors, windows, furniture, or glass doors and windows stained with dust, wiping with cold tea will make them particularly bright and white.

16. Using tea residue to wipe mirrors, glass, doors, windows, furniture, cardboard, and mud stains on leather shoes has good cleaning effects.

17. Putting tea residue in flowerpots can maintain soil moisture. Mixed with soil and put into flowerpots, it can also serve as fertilizer for flowers.

18. New wooden furniture often has a pungent paint smell. Wiping with tea several times will make the odor fade away, with better results than cleaning agents.

19. Put a small amount of tea leaves in a thermos, then pour in boiling water, cover it, and it will be drinkable after 20 minutes. The scale in the pot will gradually fall off due to the action of theanine. Repeat several times to completely remove it.

20. If brightly colored clothes fade, rinsing with tea juice can restore their original color.

21. Use a small handful of tea leaves, brew into tea water, and use it to wash woolen clothes. This can also remove stains and keep the color bright. However, after washing with tea water, rinse several times with warm water.

22. Sprinkle used tea residue on tatami mats, then sweep with a broom to clean the dust.

23. Burning used tea leaves in toilets or places with poor air quality can eliminate bad odors.

24. Mix dried tea leaves with charcoal powder and cover burning coal to maintain combustion power.

25. Dry and grind used tea leaves for storage. In winter, place them in a hand warmer as kindling—durable and easy to ignite.

26. Sprinkle tea seed cake powder by the river to kill snails.

27. Dry brewed tea leaves and light them at dusk in summer to repel mosquitoes—harmless to humans with a light fragrance.

28. Oil stains on dark clothes can be removed by rubbing with residual tea leaves.

29. Collect dried used tea leaves in a bag to make an excellent pillow filler—soft, fragrant, and reducing internal heat.