Moroccan Mint Tea
Monday, December 4th, 2006Mint tea is one of the most important aspects of the Moroccan culture, it’s a part of every day life for Moroccans. It’s served to guests, to tourists while shopping in markets, and employees during work hours in their offices.
Moroccan mint tea is easy to prepare, all you need is green gunpowder tea, fresh mint leaves – you should make sure that all stems are removed, or they would make your tea taste bitter - and cubes of sugar, or just any type of sugar. Mint, tea and sugar are put in the teapot, and boiled water is added to them, and then left to steep… The tea is served a few minutes later, and some people would get the teapot on fire to let it boil for a few more minutes.
The way of making tea actually is different from a place to another; people always hold their own secrets on how to make it better. For instance, another way of making tea is to put the gunpowder tea in the teapot and add boiled water to let it steep for a few minutes. The water is then poured away, mint leaves and sugar are added, and finally it’s all let to infuse one last time before it’s served.
The drink takes a darker colour in the south of the country than in the rest of Morocco. The colour of the tea depends on how it was prepared, and how long it was left to steep. Its sweetness depends on the quantity of sugar used to prepare it.
Moroccan teapots have beautiful designs and can be made of metal, aluminium, silver, etc. To complete the tea set, nice decorated hand-painted glasses are used to serve tea. All is put on a three-legged tray called “siniya”.
