Mint tea

 It’s the national drink of Morocco and it’s the one recipe that is most often requested. The secret? It couldn’t be easier to make. There’s only a few ingredients and once you get the technique down you’ll be a Moroccan tea professional.

 

INGREDIENTS

◊        Loose green tea - Chinese Gunpowder tea is the most commonly used variety

◊        Mint - fresh mint is the best but if it’s not in season or expensive dried mint also works

◊        Sugar

◊        Water (of course)

 

DIRECTIONS

I use a metal teapot, like is shown above but a ceramic pot also works. This recipe is based on a 16OZ capacity teapot. Place your tea kettle on to boil. Then add 2 heaping teaspoons of loose tea to your teapot. If you’re using fresh mint add 5-6 springs into the pot – you may need to stuff it in! Finally add 4-5 teaspoons of sugar. Is this a lot of sugar? Yes. But the sugar is key. If you served a Moroccan tea without sugar they probably would be too polite to say anything but would wonder what in the world was going on. On an interesting note the level of sweetness varies region- ally. The further south in the country you go the sweeter the tea gets. I have a friend from northern Morocco who makes tea one way but always doubles the sugar when my husband is at the table. When your water has boiled pour it into the teapot.

 

If you are using a metal teapot, place it onto your burner and turn up the heat. You will want the water to boil again as a way to steep the tea. If  you are using a ceramic tea pot, allow the tea to steep for about 5 min- utes before serving. Tea is served in small glass cups. It’s a skill to pour the correct way which is holding the tea pot with one handed and raising the stream as high as possible. This action creates bubbles on the top of the tea cup – the more bubbles the better. It’s common to see the host pour a glass of tea and then pour it back into the tea pot. This may hap- pen several times.

 

It’s a way to circulate the tea before serving. This may seem like a com- plicated way to prepare tea but the results are well worth it!