Maghrebi mint tea

{{short description|North African green tea}} {{Infobox food | name = Mint Tea | alternate_name = Atay, Atay b'naanaa, Shay-b'naanaa, Latay. | served = Hot | region = North Africa | associated_cuisine = {{unbulleted list|Algerian|Libyan|Malian|Mauritanian|Moroccan|Nigerien|Tunisian|Western Saharan}} }} thumb|Tunisian mint tea served with nuts

'''Maghrebi mint tea''' (Maghrebi Arabic: {{lang|ary|أتاي}}, ''ʾatāy'';<ref name=":02">{{cite thesis|title=Sweetening the Pot: A History of Tea and Sugar in Morocco, 1850-1960|url=https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1051972|hdl=10822/1051972|hdl-access=free|publisher=Georgetown University|date=2018|degree=PhD|first=Graham Hough|last=Cornwell}}</ref> {{langx|ar|الشاي بالنعناع|aš-šāy bin-naʿnāʿ}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hiamag.com/node/1152986|title=ما هي فوائد الشاي المغربي|last=هي|first=مجلة|date=2020-02-24|website=مجلة هي|language=ar|access-date=2020-03-17}}</ref>), also known as '''Tunisian mint tea''', '''Algerian mint tea''',<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lj0CeaIIETkC&pg=PA349 Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency for Culinary, Hospitality, and Nutrition Professionals.] Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2011.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DBzYCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural Encyclopedia.] Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2015.</ref><ref>Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cWJgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120 World Food: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Social Influence from Hunter Gatherers to the Age of Globalization.] Taylor & Francis, 2012.</ref> or '''Moroccan mint tea'''<ref>{{cite book |title=Saharan Crossroads: Exploring Historical, Cultural, and Artistic Linkages |first1=Tara F. |last1=Deubel |first2=Scott M. |last2=Youngstedt |first3=Hélène |last3=Tissières |page=185 |date=2016-10-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.organicauthority.com/eco-chic-table/the-art-of-moroccan-mint-tea-and-how-to-brew-it.html|title=The Art of Moroccan Mint Tea and How to Brew It|website=Organic Authority|access-date=2016-10-21}}</ref> is a North African preparation of gunpowder green tea with spearmint leaves and sugar.

It is traditional to the Greater Maghreb region (the northwest African countries of Algeria,<ref>{{cite web|last=Bouayed|first=Fatima-Zohra|date=1970|title=La cuisine algérienne|url=https://www.abebooks.com/cuisine-alg%C3%A9rienne-Bouayed-Fatima-Zohra-Temps-Actuels/31073983930/bd|access-date=2022-02-01|website=www.abebooks.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Finn|first=Rachel|date=2007-05-01|title=Gâteaux Algériens: A Love Affair|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article/7/2/78/47346/Gaateaux-Algeeriens-A-Love-Affair|journal=Gastronomica|volume=7|issue=2|pages=78–82|doi=10.1525/gfc.2007.7.2.78|issn=1529-3262|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=BENAYOUN|first=JOËLLE ALLOUCHE|date=1983|title=Les pratiques culinaires: lieux de mémoire, facteur d'identité|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41285309|journal=La Rassegna Mensile di Israel|volume=49|issue=9/12|pages=629|jstor=41285309|issn=0033-9792}}</ref> Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, and Mauritania). Its consumption has spread throughout North Africa, parts of the Sahel, France, Spain, the Arab world, and Middle East.

Mint tea is central to social life in the Maghreb<ref name="Tea in Morocco">{{cite news|date=2014-10-21|title=Tea in Morocco: 'It's in the blood'|language=en-US|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/tea-in-morocco-its-in-the-blood/2014/10/20/8f7730c0-54b9-11e4-892e-602188e70e9c_story.html|access-date=2019-06-09}}</ref> and is very popular among the Tuareg people of Algeria, Libya, Niger and Mali.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bernus|first=Edmond|date=1978|title=Les Touaregs: Pasteurs et guerriers des sables|url=https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers18-05/21704.pdf|journal=Berger-Levrault S.A}}</ref> The serving can take a ceremonial form, especially when prepared for a guest. The tea is traditionally made by the head male in the family and offered to guests as a sign of hospitality. Typically, at least three glasses of tea are served.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://moroccanzest.com/authentic-moroccan-mint-tea-recipe|title=Authentic Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe (from my Mother Cookbook)|date=2018-05-29|work=Moroccan Zest|access-date=2018-09-19|language=en-US}}</ref> The tea is consumed throughout the day as a social activity.<ref name="Tea in Morocco" /><ref name="Richardson">{{cite book|last=Richardson|first=James|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10355/pg10355.html|title=Travels in Morocco|publisher=Charles J. Skeet|year=1860}}</ref><ref name=Wharton /> The native spearmint ''naʿnāʿ'' ({{lang|ar|نعناع}}) possesses a clear, pungent, mild aroma, and is the mint that is traditionally used in Maghrebi mint tea. Other hybrids and cultivars of spearmint, including ''yerba buena'', are occasionally used as substitutes for nana mint. In Morocco, mint tea is sometimes perfumed with herbs, flowers, or orange blossom water. In the cold season, they add many warming herbs like marjoram, sage, verbena, and wormwood.<ref name="Tea in Morocco" /> Mint has been used as an infusion, decoction, and herbal medicine throughout the Mediterranean since antiquity.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

== Name == In Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria, the word for tea is ''tay'', ''atay'' or ''lātāy''; while in Tunisia it's ''et-tey''.<ref name="Indiana">{{cite book|author=|title=ʻArabiyya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i3PvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA580|year=1975|publisher=Indiana University|pages=580}}</ref> These diverge from the typical Arabic word for tea, {{Transliteration|ar|shai}} ({{lang|ar|شاي}}). According to Van Driem, ''ʾit-tāī'' originates from the Dutch language {{lang|nl|thee}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Driem |first=George |title=The Tale of Tea: A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day |publisher=Brill |year=2019 |pages=460 |language=English}}</ref>

==History== Gunpowder tea was introduced into North Africa by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries via Morocco and Algeria.<ref name="Albala2011">{{cite book|author=Ken Albala|title=Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NTo6c_PJWRgC&pg=PA235|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37626-9|page=235}}</ref>

According to food historian, Helen Saberi, the drinking of green tea infused with mint spread from Morocco to Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and to nomadic tribes of Berbers and Tuareg in the Sahara.<ref>{{cite book|last=Saberi|first=Helen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZ0TUWvE9qQC&dq=The+drinking+of+green+tea+infused+with+mint+tea&pg=PA81|title=Tea: A Global History|date=2010-10-15|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-892-0}}</ref>

Sugar and tea would arrive from Europe to the port of Essaouira, where Jewish merchants who had started migrating to coastal cities in the 19th century managed their passing through the interior of Morocco.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gottreich|first=Emily Benichou|title=Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kr_MDwAAQBAJ&dq=tea+port+essaouira&pg=PT177|date=2020-02-20|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-83860-362-5}}</ref> James Richardson recorded a description of a Moroccan tea ceremony in the 1840s, and said that during his travels tea was drunk widely and all day long.<ref name="Richardson" />

Tea consumption became associated with power and prestige in Morocco, and {{interlanguage link|Ahmed Bin Mubarek (officer of tea)|lt=Ahmed Bin Mubarek|ar|أحمد مول أتاي}}, officer of Sultan Suleiman (r. 1792–1822), became the first ''mūl atay'' ({{lang|ar|مول أتاي}} "master of tea") in the Makhzen.<ref>{{cite web|last=أكلاو|first=هند|title=من الشاي إلى الأتاي.. كيف أبدع المغاربة مشروبهم السحري؟|url=https://www.aljazeera.net/midan/miscellaneous/2019/7/28/من-الشاي-إلى-الأتاي-كيف-أبدع-المغاربة|access-date=2021-11-10|website=www.aljazeera.net|language=ar}}</ref> In the twenty years after the Anglo-Moroccan Treaty of 1856, and after the British East India Company diverted tea meant for the Baltic states to Morocco during the Crimean War,<ref name="Tea in Morocco" /> tea imports quadrupled but tea consumption remained an urban practice.<ref name=":0">{{cite thesis|title=Sweetening the Pot: A History of Tea and Sugar in Morocco, 1850-1960|url=https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1051972|publisher=Georgetown University|date=2018|degree=thesis|first=Graham Hough|last=Cornwell}}</ref> Among urban populations, partaking in the tea ceremony became a symbol of status and {{lang|fr|savoir faire}}, while among rural farmers it was a way to emulate the urban class they both envied and resented.<ref name=":0" /> Tea consumption spread through wider segments of the population as a result of the famines of the 1880s, when it became an emergency calorie substitute, appetite suppressant, and mode of performing acculturation for rural populations flooding the cities in search of opportunities.<ref name=":0" />

Another factor in the spread of ''atay'' consumption in Morocco was the comparative scarcity of coffee.<ref name=":0" /> Whereas Algerian cities had been introduced to coffee culture under the influence of the Ottomans, Moroccan cities would only be introduced to coffee later.<ref name=":0" /> Oral traditions in the Algerian city of Tlemcen distinguish between "Fassi tea drinkers and Tlemceni coffee drinkers".<ref name=":0" />

In the late 19th century, Sufi orders led by figures such as Muhammad Bin Abdul-Kabir Al-Kattani told their adherents not to drink tea, attempting to boycott sugar and tea imported by Europeans.<ref>Bazzaz, S. (2002). ''Challenging power and authority in pre-protectorate morocco: Shaykh muhammad al-kattānī and the tarīqa kattāniyya'' (Order No. 3051111). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (305526264).</ref>

By the early 20th century, mint tea had become well established in Morocco.<ref name="Wharton">{{cite book|last = Wharton | first = Edith|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/39042/39042-h/39042-h.htm|title = In Morocco | publisher = Oxford: JB|year = 1920| isbn = 1515420566}}</ref>

==Preparation== [[File:TeaSeremonyWS.jpg|thumb|right|Saharawi tea ceremony]]

The basic ingredients of the tea are green tea, fresh mint leaves, sugar, and boiling water.<ref name="Tea in Morocco" /> The proportions of the ingredients and the brewing time can vary widely. Boiling water is used in the Maghreb, rather than the cooler water that is used in East Asia to avoid bitterness. The leaves are left in the pot while the tea is consumed, changing the flavor from one glass to the next. It is poured into glasses from high above to swirl loose tea leaves to the bottom of the glass, whilst gently aerating the tea to improve its flavor.

In the winter, if mint is rare, sometimes leaves of tree wormwood ({{lang|ary|الشيبة}} ''shība'' in Moroccan Arabic) are substituted for (or used to complement) the mint, giving the tea a distinctly bitter flavor.<ref name=Artemisia_guide>{{citation |date=2013 |title=Artemisia: An Essential Guide from The Herb Society of America |publisher=The Herb Society of America |url=http://www.herbsociety.org/herbs/documents/artemisia_guide_final-1_000.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905120137/http://www.herbsociety.org/herbs/documents/artemisia_guide_final-1_000.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-05}}</ref> Lemon verbena ({{lang|ary|لويزة}} ''lwiza'' in Moroccan Arabic) is also used to give it a lemon flavor. Other herbs used to flavor the tea include oregano, sage, and thyme.<ref name=":0" /> The tea is sometimes sold as a ready-to-cook mixture of tea and dried mint, which is easier to store and to prepare but has diminished flavor.

==Culture== Traditionally, the tea is served three times. The amount of time it has been steeping gives each of the glasses of tea a unique flavor, described in this famous Maghrebi proverb:<br /> {{cquote|The first glass is as gentle as life,<br />the second is as strong as love,<br />the third is as bitter as death.<ref name="Tea in Morocco" />}}

In one of Nass El Ghiwane's most popular songs, ''Es-Siniya'' ({{lang|ar|الصينية}}), the tea tray is used as a metaphor to discuss the hardships of migrating from the countryside to a big city such as Casablanca.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Blended tea Category:Green tea Category:North African cuisine Category:Sephardi Jewish cuisine Category:Tea culture Category:Tea in Africa Category:Algerian cuisine Category:African cuisine Category:Algerian drinks Category:African drinks Category:Tuareg culture Category:Mint drinks