When I got married, the first thing I wanted to perfect was my Moroccan green tea. I had watched my mother-in-law make it quite a numerous amount of times and learnt how to make it the way they enjoy it.
This green tea is quite important in Moroccan culture and hospitality. The way I was brought up, whenever a guest, expected or unexpected, arrived at our house a beverage, hot or cold, had to be served to them. With Moroccans this is taken to another level.
The way Moroccans honour a guest is so amazing, you are treated like royalty. This tea wouls normally be offered to you first and then a full meal. Thereafter, as I have experienced, this sweet green tea will be made for you again served with biscuits and treats. The experience is different throughout Morocco.
In some cities the tea is strongly brewed and in others not so much. As much as Moroccans love their sweet mint tea, they also enjoy flavouring the tea with different aromatic herbs like lemon verbena (‘louisa‘ as they say), sage, the leaves from a tree called wormwood and thyme. Also on special occasions, my mother-in-law, loves to add orange blossom water to the tea. It gives the tea such a wonderful aroma.
All this talk about Morrocan tea makes me really reminisce about the place. Morocco is one of my favourite places that I have travelled to, not only because my husband is from there, but because I love the country, it’s people, it’s food….. EVERYTHING.
I can go on and on about Morocco’s green tea but here is a simple step by step process on how I learnt to make it.
All you’ll need is:
- Green Tea (usually chinese gunpowder tea leaves)
- Boiling water
- Sugar (LOTS of it!! But you can add less depending on how sweet you like your tea)
- A generous amount of mint leaves
- A lot of love and good energy
And you’re good to go.
- In a teapot (called a ‘berrad’), add 2 tsp of tea leaves and about a 1/4 of a cup of boiling water and steep the leaves for about 5 minutes (this process as explained by my Moroccan mama is to clean the tea leaves).
- Pour the water out through a sieve.
- Now add about 500ml of boiling water into the teapot along with 4-5 tsp of sugar. (Yikes!! That’s sweet)
- Bring this to a boil, simmer for a minute and then turn off the heat.
- Add your mint leaves to the teapot and let it sit for a second to infuse the flavour.
- Pour yourself a cup and imagine yourself being in the South of Morocco under a berber tent enjoying that fresh cup of mint tea. Mmmmm….
You can adjust the amount of tea leaves and water depending on the size of the teapot, as well as the sugar. I personally don’t take any sugar in mine.
When serving, the tea is poured into a glass and then returned back into the pot 2 to 3 times at most to mix the tea. Then a little bit is poured into the same glass to taste if it is sweet enough.
One thing that I love about travel is admiring all the different culture and traditions of every place. It is truly amazing! Subhanallah (Glory be to Allah).
Would you like an adventure now, or shall we have our tea first?
– Peter Pan
Until my next post,
Always be kind.
It’s me. Nooraina.
Being Nooraina
Xxx
Being Nooraina 