How to Dye Easter Eggs With Coffee, Tea, and Turmeric
Springtime is almost here in Tennessee. Forsythia and daffodils are starting blooming, trees are budding, and there’s warm sunshine peeking through the clouds most of the time. Oh, and allergy season has hit most. Yes, spring is here. I’m going to show you How to Dye Easter Eggs With Coffee, Tea, and Turmeric. You’ll also find some pretty blue eggs too.
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I normally don’t decorate a lot for “Easter” as much as spring. I remember the days when Doug was young the house looked like Easter threw up. And I even had eggs hanging from the trees in the front yard. Yes, Don was not happy about that project, but being the good husband he is, he went along with it.
Although the colors usually associated with spring are pastel but Easter eggs tend to be bright, I wanted something a bit different. I’m going for a more neutral color tone this year. Grays and whites are so dominant in decorating, I thought I would go with natural colors.
Easter Eggs With Coffee, Tea, and Turmeric
So now how to dye eggs to fill a basket and nests. Coffee and tea should do the trick. I always have food color on hand so if I decided to add any “colors”. And, I’ve been seeing a lot of natural food coloring which I did try.
I’ll go ahead and let you know about the fails.
After boiling a couple dozen eggs as usual, I let them cool and dry. These aren’t going to be eaten so I didn’t worry about refrigeration right away. But if any cracked during these processes they were tossed.
I saw people using spinach and zucchini for pretty green. NOT for me. I cooked each of them separately, let them cool, added vinegar, ……….. and so on but barely any color to my eggs.
Now to those which worked for me.
Turmeric did work great. I loved the golden yellow it produced without it being that typical yellow.
TURMERIC DYE (and yes I just realized my spice bottle is wrong)
2 C boiling water
3 T ground Turmeric
3 t vinegar
Stir well and let this set til almost cool.
Add eggs and let set overnight. There is some spice which settles to the bottom but you can stir it off and on if you want to. This might have caused a few of the speckles, but it was fine with me.
COFFEE & TEA DYE
For these 3:
Darkest – 24 hours in coffee ground mixture (1 1/2 C grounds, enough hot water to make 3 cups)
Middle – 24 hours in regular strength tea (Lipton tea bags)
Lightest – 24 hours in regular strength coffee
All had 2 teaspoon vinegar added.
There is a bit of a difference in the browns of the tea and coffee. Tea gave a more beige color.
These weren’t being done with any color expectations, so I was happy with the results.
And there’s always differences in eggs too – all of these were in coffee grounds for about 5 hours and there is noticeable color variations.
Dyed Easter Eggs
Your color choices are endless – straight up blue, green, red and yellow – or mix a few colors together just for fun (kids will love it).
These were done with just a cup of hot water, a few drops of food color and 2 tsp white vinegar.
I don’t have my exact ratio of food coloring since it was just an experiment. I would say though maybe 4 drops of blue and 1 drop of green. They only stayed in the dye about 5 – 10 minutes.
If they aren’t dark enough or the right shade, just add another drop or two of food coloring and let set again. Remember, most of the time it’s not like you are trying to match paint colors.
Speckled Dyed Easter Eggs
I wanted to have a variety of looks so decided to speckle some and this is where my experimenting was done again.
All you need is:
Brown craft paint
Old tooth brush
Gloves
Do this outside or an an area well covered because paint can splatter.
Pour a small amount of paint onto a paper plate and dip the tooth brush in.
To keep the eggs from rolling around, I made a “‘stop” with toothpicks.
Flick the end of the tooth brush with you finger aimed toward the egg. Add as much speckle as desired.
Let dry completely. Do reverse side if desired.
Hint for dipping eggs into dye – especially useful with kids. Place your egg inside a whisk to dip into dye.
Just be careful when they remove the whisk from the dye to not shake it to briskly as they will splatter the dye, or break the egg.
Marbled Look Dyed Easter Egg
After dyeing the eggs I thought – what else could I do with this coffee. I used a couple of regular coffee filters and dipped them in the coffee until saturated, then wrapped it tightly around the egg, pressing out extra coffee and air. You might want your gloves on for this too.
The filter needs to lay as flat to the egg as possible.
Top was twisted and secured with a clothes pin.
This could work with any color dye.
Now show me some of you favorite Easter and Spring Projects.
I’m loving my Easter Eggs Dyed With Coffee, Tea, and Turmeric and may keep them out a little past Easter.
Do you need a filler for vases? Beans will do the trick.
Now you have some of your decor done, lets think of food – fun desserts and treats.
I’ve included affiliate links to Amazon for you to find some products easier. I may receive a small commission, but the price is the same for you. It just helps my blog out.
Happy Travels,
Rosemary
I loved reading this post. My uncle used to dye eggs with the skins of red onions. Miss getting those eggs!
I tried a couple things, I think spinach and something else, and just couldn’t get it to work. But I was pleased with these.
Such cool ideas! I love that you have found so many ways to work with Easter eggs. I love the coffee and tea eggs. They look so natural. Really cool.
Really easier and less mess. Put them in and let them set for a while and you’re done.
I’ll have to try this, my kids are allergic to artificial food coloring so we don’t usually dye eggs (since then they can’t eat them and I can only eat so many, lol)
Because we don’t eat these, I don’t worry about them sitting in the coffee or tea for a long time. I love the colors.
Great tips! Love the natural way of dying eggs best. Happy Easter!
Thanks so much. Sometimes I’m just not into a lot of color and loved how these turned out.
Lots of great ideas here Rosemary. I have also been wanting to steer clear of the store bought dyes and try my own.
It’s too late for this year, but I really want to try with the vegetables again as I couldn’t get it to work before.
Your Easter eggs turned out really well, Rosemary! I especially love the paper bag pulled close ~ a bowl full of those at different angles would show really well. <3 Fun ideas and I do love dying cloth and such with tea and coffee. <3
Happy Easter to you,
Barb 🙂
I have aged many a things with usually tea. Seems like it makes a better antique color than coffee.
My turmeric egg is marinating over night as we speak!! Bluberrie Kale and beet are on the counter likewise engaged!!!
Am becoming aware of natural dyes and organic paints for my printmaking !The Artful Child (•)
I love the colors these natural things make. So much prettier than most dyes.
What a cool idea for a natural look to Easter eggs. Pinned for later!
Thanks Christy. I still love the neutrals in things, just adding a bit of blue.
I have to try that coffee filter trick, Rosemary. That’s sooooooo neat. The only eggs we can buy here in South Africa are the brown variety so I try using the stronger coffee mix and leave them for longer.
I would love to visit South Africa – one of these days. Wonder if you tried a little bleach on the coffee filter if it would lighten the eggs? I really have no idea, but a thought.
I love that you used ingredients found in your pantry! They look so beautiful and natural
Thanks. It’s funny when simple things can turn out so good.
Brilliants tips with the wisk and coffee filters. I love how they all turned out!
I was going to do some blue last week and discovered no coffee filters. With my Keurig, I didn’t have any, so off to Dollar Tree.
Well aren’t you the clever one, I would never have thought of that. And it uses products we all have at home.
I love trying new things and always pleased when they work – of course, many don’t too.
Wow, great ideas here. Who knew coffee would dye the egg so dark. Live how easy the speckles are. Pinned!
I used to do tea-dyed lace and figured coffee and tea stained other things, so it should eggs.
Love these! We love to dye eggs and use different styles and colors are so much fun. The kids will have to give these a try this year.
The neutrals are so good with a lot of the decor these days. Maybe next year I can get more to do.
I love the idea of using natural sources to dye the eggs! And the speckle idea is genius! Might experiment with some blueberry powder I use in my smoothies!
What is the blueberry powder? I don’t always have frozen blueberries on hand and this might be good for me to use. Share a pic if you try the eggs.
These options are so earthy and pretty! The tumeric turned out so vibrant.
I love them as an option to the traditional pastel colors.
Thank you for sharing what also didn’t work, it makes me feel better when I don’t always succeed!
We don’t live in a perfect world. I got blasted once for showing my fudge not being right but found out it was the thermometer. So a reason to check those.
I love the natural colors of these eggs. They are perfect for Farmhouse decor.
Happy Spring,
Kippi
I loved how the tea and coffee made different neutral colors.