How to Make Authentic and Delicious Moroccan Mint Tea

After traveling through this majestic and exotic country for a couple of weeks on our Moroccan road trip, we got used to the welcoming custom of someone offering you a glass of tea and moment to rest and relax before jumping into any business.

As the habit began to form, even I become a little cranky if I haven’t been offered a glass of tea within milliseconds of arriving….anywhere!  There is something soothing, relaxing, calming about being offered the chance to sit and wait for your tea, then drink it leisurely while filling out paperwork or ordering dinner or even watching the sun begin to set over Ksar ait Benhaddou.

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Getting hooked on the sweet tea, warming you inside and out, was a happy circumstance of our trip. We drank tea while watching the food stalls being erected in the Marrakech Medina. We sipped a glass while enjoying the sunset on the beautiful Portuguese city of El Jadida, and we even had a glass in the blue shadows of stunning Chefchaouen. It’s the experience that brought the whole trip together.

How many glasses of mint tea will you need before you become tea-drunk?

I believe, the Moroccan tea-drinking culture may actually have been developed once people needed to navigate a medina (within the walls of the old town), since it can be a bit frustrating.  Between trying to find my destination and fending off unofficial guides, I have to admit that every time I arrived, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and looked forward to a cuppa.

Mint tea is more than a drink, more than a tradition, more than a ceremony.  It’s a conversation.  When someone offers you a glass of tea, it is an invitation to get to know each other, to settle in and enjoy your host’s company.  

It’s considered bad form to offer tea or accept tea without expecting to spend some time conversing.  Therefore, the making and serving of the tea is just as important as the consumption.

How to Make Moroccan Mint Tea

Visiting a Berber family south of Marrakesh, I learned how to make mint tea the Moroccan way.

Here’s what I learned:

Ingredients: hot water, mint, tea, sugar…lots of sugar!

First you put in the tea.  With a normal pot, you put one handful and a little extra.  Cover it completely with boiling water, and shake, shake, shake.  At this point, you pour out all the water and completely discard.  This is considered cleaning the tea, and the dirty water is called “chilil” or “chilila”.

Next, you put a big handful of mint, and a liberal amount of sugar in the pot, before filling the teapot with hot water.  This you let sit and steep for a few minutes, shake, and pour it into one glass, but immediately pour it back into the teapot.  You repeat this step three times, so that the sugar, mint, and tea can fully mix.

The next step is for you to determine if the mint tea has a good taste.  Pour a small amount into your own glass and sample.  Does it have enough mint? Enough sugar?  This is your opportunity to make sure the taste is perfect.  If you have to adjust it, put in the desired ingredients and repeat the pour in and pour out method three more times before serving the delectable tea to your guests.

The tasting step must not be skipped, because according to my teacher, Khailil,  “It is shameful if your guest has to add sugar to their tea after it is served,” since it will not be fully integrated with no gritty pieces floating in the mix.

Serving the tea also takes a little practice.  A talented server can hold the teapot up to a couple of feet above the glass, so that you can see the golden brown color and enjoy the look of your tea as well.  

By serving from a height, the splashing tea froths and foams.  A perfect glass of tea will have at least a half inch of froth on the top.  After pouring, garnish it with a few more mint leaves.

You will notice that at most tea houses or restaurants, the mint leaves are in the glass.  If you watch your neighbors, you’ll notice that they will take the mint out of the glass and put it on a plate.  

As you can see below, Aicha’s food stall in Marrakesh serves many glasses of tea each night, so they have put the mint and sugar in the glass and will only add the hot tea.  To my foreign taste buds, it was still delicious, but I’m not sure what Khailil would think about this assembly line method.

Have you had mint tea from Morocco?  Will you try and make it yourself?

Author Bio: Corinne Vail is a travel photographer, food lover, and a perpetual traveler who has been travel writing for over 14 years. For many years she lived overseas in Germany, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, and the Netherlands teaching the children of the US. military. She’s visited over 90 countries, and she’s not stopping anytime soon.