Moroccan whiskey - Moroccan tea with mint or wormwood
Cooking time: 5 min. / 2 min.Difficulty: easy
Muslims are officially not allowed any alcohol. This is probably the reason why the tea, Moroccan most popular drink, is called Moroccan or berber whiskey. Moroccan tea in not just a drink. It is a symbol of hospitality, tradition and Moroccan culture. They add various herbs and spices into the tea according to current weather conditions or simply according to the taste preferences.
Process
Put loose tea into a teapot. Pour in a small amount of boiling water. Just to rinse the tea. Let it set aside shortly, about 30 seconds, and discard the water.
Leave the tea in the teapot and this time fill the teapot nearly to the top and put on a very small heat to boil about 2 minutes. When it gets foamy on the surface, wait about 30 more seconds and remove from fire. Leave the tea leaves in the teapot.
Add one of the following herbs / spices into the tea:
- fresh mint - in Morocco they use it when it is hot weather as it cools you down
- fresh wormwood - it is used in cold days, as it warms you up
- lemon verbena - it gives a nice lemon aroma to the tea
- 1 star anise - for nice anise aroma
- a few saffron pestils - for nice aroma
Then add loads of sugar. The sweeter the tea is, the bigger respect the host shows towards the guest.
Tea is served in small heatproof glasses.
Do not stir the tea with teaspoon. In Morocco it is mixed by repeated pouring the tea from the pot into the glass and back. It firstly mixes the flavours, secondly it aerates the tea, the tea cools down and it shows importance of the guest to the host. As the higher they lift the pot when pouring into the glass, the higher is the importance of the guest.
More about Moroccan whiskey please find on the blog.
To buy gunpowder tea:
Video recipe
Video contains subtitles.
Ingredients
For 1/2 liter of tea:
- 0,5 l water
- 1 tbs Chinese loose green gunpowder tea
- 2 handful fresh mint leaves or 1 small handful fresh wormwood or dried lemon verbena leaves
- 6 or more sugar cubes
