Oil-Fried Tea Soup 油茶汤
Oil-Fried Tea Soup is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Photo adjustments
EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Oil-Fried Tea Soup (油茶汤) is a Tujia (土家) snack soup from Enshi (恩施), especially associated with Xianfeng (咸丰) and Laifeng (来凤). Fried tea leaves form its base, while rice puffs, tofu and nuts add substance and crunch.
How it is made
Tea leaves are fried in cooking oil until wax-yellow. Water is added with ginger, scallion, garlic and pepper; the boiling tea soup is then ladled into bowls. Previously fried or toasted ingredients, known as paohuo (泡货), are added to it. Hubei Daily (湖北日报) lists puffed rice, puffed maize, fried tofu pieces, walnuts, peanuts and soybeans.
How it is eaten
The choice of seasonings and crisp additions varies with the guest’s taste. Hubei Daily describes serving a fragrant bowl to an honoured visitor as a Tujia hospitality custom. Oil-Fried Tea Soup is also included in organised four-tea presentations, alongside white-crane tea, paoer tea (泡儿茶) and egg tea.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.