Moroccan Mint Tea: The Ritual, the Words and the Etiquette

Short answer: Moroccan mint tea, atay in Darija, is Chinese green tea brewed in a small metal teapot with fresh spearmint and plenty of sugar, then poured from a height into small glasses. It is offered to guests at home, in shops and in cafés, and accepting a glass is part of being welcomed. The words you need most are atay b n3na3 (mint tea), chwiya d s-sokkar (a little sugar) and bse77tek (enjoy it, to your health).

Tea in Morocco is less a drink than a small ceremony of hospitality. Below: the vocabulary of the tea tray, how the tea is made, a short and accurate history, the etiquette, and phrases and dialogues you can use on your first visit.

The words of the tea tray

Notice that Moroccans say atay, not the chay or shai you may know from other Arabic-speaking countries. In winter some families add chiba (wormwood) to the pot, and some add louiza (lemon verbena) with the mint.

How Moroccan mint tea is made

Every family has its own habits, but the usual method looks like this:

1. Rinse the tea. A spoonful of green tea goes into l-berrad with a little boiling water. It is swirled and poured away, to wash the leaves and soften the bitterness.
2. Add mint and sugar. A big handful of fresh n3na3 and the sugar go in, traditionally broken from a sugar loaf, today often as cubes.
3. Brew and mix. The pot is filled with boiling water and heated briefly. The person making the tea pours a glass and returns it to the pot, sometimes more than once, to mix the sugar.
4. Pour from a height. The tea is poured into l-kisan from high above the glass. This cools it a little and makes a light foam on top, which is a sign of a well-made glass.

The person who prepares and pours is usually the host or someone from the family. As a guest, you are not expected to pour.

A short history of tea in Morocco

Tea arrived in Morocco as a luxury. Historian Graham Cornwell, in his Georgetown University dissertation on tea and sugar in Morocco, cites the story that Queen Anne of England sent a box of tea to Sultan Moulay Ismail as a gift, around the turn of the eighteenth century. For a long time tea stayed a drink of the court and the elite, because it was expensive to import.

That changed in the second half of the nineteenth century. A treaty with Britain in 1856 lowered customs duties, and imports grew. You will often read that the tea boom started when British merchants could not sell their green tea during the Crimean War; Cornwell points out that writers who repeat this story cite no evidence for it. According to his research, tea and sugar became part of the ordinary daily diet of most Moroccans only around the turn of the twentieth century and after.

Two details from the same research you can see on any tea tray today:

• The tea is Chinese. Gunpowder, the most popular green tea in Morocco, comes mainly from Zhejiang Province in China.
• The tray carries the name of China. Cornwell notes that siniya, the word for the tray, comes from the Arabic word for China.

Etiquette: how to drink tea like a welcome guest

These are everyday habits, not strict rules, and Moroccans are generous with visitors who don't know them yet.

• Accept at least one glass. When a host or a shopkeeper offers tea, saying yes is the friendly answer. Iyeh, 3afak or wakha, chokran is enough.
• Hold the glass by the rim. The glass has no handle and the tea is very hot. Hold it at the top edge, or on the bottom, and wait a moment before drinking.
• Ask about sugar early. The sugar goes into the pot, not your glass. If you want less, say so before the tea is made: chwiya d s-sokkar, 3afak.
• Expect more than one glass. Your host will often refill your glass. When you have had enough, a smile and safi, chokran is polite.
• Compliment the tea. Atay bnin bezzaf! ("the tea is really delicious") always goes down well, especially with the person who made it.

For the polite words used here (3afak, wakha, safi), see our guide to please, thank you, yes and no in Darija.

Phrases for tea time

Two short dialogues

Visiting a Moroccan family

Host: Mrehba bik! Bghiti atay? (Welcome! Would you like some tea?)

You: Iyeh, 3afak. Chwiya d s-sokkar. (Yes, please. Just a little sugar.)

Host: Wakha. Ghadi n-wejjed atay. (OK. I'm going to make tea.)

(… the tea is poured …)

Host: Bse77tek. (Enjoy.)

You: Llah y3tik s-se77a. Atay bnin bezzaf! (Thank you. The tea is really delicious!)

Host: Zid wa7ed l-kas? (Another glass?)

You: Safi, chokran. Tbarkallah 3lik. (That's enough, thanks. Well done!)

In a café

You: Salam. Wa7ed atay, 3afak. (Hi. A tea, please.)

Waiter: B n3na3? (With mint?)

You: Iyeh. Bla sokkar, 3afak. (Yes. Without sugar, please.)

Waiter: Wakha.

Tea also appears in the souk: a shopkeeper may offer you a glass while you look around or discuss a price. Accepting is friendly and does not oblige you to buy. Our guide to bargaining in a Moroccan souk has the phrases for the rest of that conversation.

Quick practice

Say each answer out loud before you check it.

1. Your host asks bghiti atay? You want some.
2. You want very little sugar.
3. The host refills your glass, but you have had enough.
4. A friend is drinking her tea. Wish her "enjoy".

Answers: 1. iyeh, 3afak. 2. chwiya d s-sokkar, 3afak. 3. safi, chokran. 4. bse77tek.

Your next step

Tea is where many first conversations in Morocco begin, usually right after the greetings: if you need those, start with Moroccan Darija greetings. To hear how atay, n3na3 and bse77tek really sound, try our free Darija audio lessons. And if you want the vocabulary of visits, meals and cafés in one place, with exercises, the Easy Darija A1-A2 book is a structured way to learn it.