I began watching “The Meaning of Tea” tonight. There was a lot of footage from Morocco, and the sweet mint tisane they refer to as “tea” there. I’ve had Mint Tea before, and it was always just “okay” but what I saw in the film intrigued me. I literally paused the film, ran outside into the garden, pulled out a ton of mint, came inside — and brewed it up with a lot of sugar. And it was AMAZING. I re-enacted the events and photographed them for your viewing pleasure:
The mint growing in my yard in Chicago:
Giving the mint a rinse:
The pot is stuffed with mint, now I’m adding 1/4 cup of raw sugar:
The mint tisane:
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Ah! So that’s how it is made! I’d always been told it used a gunpowder green as a base before adding mint leaves, but gunpowder always seemed too base a flavor to match the taste of good mint teas I’ve had at Moroccan restaurants in Seattle. The secret is no tea at all!
Though it may taste good, this is not the real way to make Moroccan tea. After living in Morocco over the summer and learning from natives there, Moroccan mint tea is absolutely brewed with green tea leaves. Where else would the caffeine come from? Put the tea leaves in first, then the mint. Brew the tea over a stove and then add sugar (lots of it) to taste, pouring tea into a little glass and returning it to the pot multiple times to mix the sugar around.
Julia,
Thanks for the information! From the documentary, I wasn’t sure if they used tea or not, so I did not. It still tastes nice, but I’m sure a bit of gunpowder green tea would even out the flavors a bit. How was Morocco? Any recommendations?
You have a quite beautiful teapot. Is that Sterling Silver? I have one myself and just love what it does to the flavor of the tea. I use it whenever possible as it represents spiritual purity for me.
What variety of mint are you using here? It looks like peppermint. I’ve read that Moroccan mint tea is usually brewed with spearmint + gunpowder green tea. However, in other parts of the Arab world black tea + mint is also common. I’ve visited a few Arab-run coffee shops in the U.S. that served outstanding blends of dried spearmint with black tea…often they are brewed very strongly so that you continue to taste the mint all day long!
I grow many varieties of mint, including peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, orange mint, and many other species in the mint family that I use for tea, such as lemon balm and several of the Monarda sp. (bee-balm/wild bergamot/oswego tea). I love mixing all of these plants with tea! I wonder if orange mint is closest to the traditional mint used in Morocco…it’s native to the Mediterranean, whereas many of the other mints are native to wetter climates.
Awesome!! I’ve grown mint in Ohio, it literally took over and I could not control it! I may have to try again now that I am in Missouri.
That is an awesome looking teapot… just gorgeous!