Objective To prepare tea-flavored rice cakes using a mixture of japonica rice flour and glutinous rice flour as the main raw material with the addition of tea dust by-products and analyze their quality.Methods Single-factor experiments were conducted to explore the effects of different tea dust addition amounts, white sugar addition amounts, and japonica-to-glutinous rice ratios on sensory evaluation and texture of tea-flavored rice cakes. Based on fuzzy mathematics sensory evaluation and comprehensive weighted scores of texture, orthogonal experiments were used to optimize the optimal preparation process for tea-flavored rice cakes and analyze their physicochemical and in vitro digestion characteristics.Results The rice cakes prepared under the conditions of 5 g tea dust addition, 7.5 g white sugar addition, and japonica-to-glutinous rice ratio (m_jr∶m_gr) of 1∶1 have a pale green color, appropriate viscoelasticity, and soft and chewy texture. The rheological properties of the tea-flavored rice cakes exhibit a typical gel state, with elasticity being the dominant contributing factor. Compared with traditional rice cakes, the tea-flavored rice cakes have a higher moisture content, higher contents of both rapidly digestible starch and resistant starch, and a more moderate starch digestion rate.Conclusion Appropriate tea dust addition can effectively improve the viscoelasticity and digestive properties of rice cakes, and the optimized tea-flavored rice cakes have better overall quality than traditional rice cakes.