A few years ago my younger daughter and I were fortunate enough to be able to travel to Spain and Portugal and have in our itinerary an added excursion by ferry to Morocco. To this day I can still envision the café in Tangier where we sat at a low table sipping hot sweet mint tea from tall thin ornate glasses while enjoying the instrumental music of local musicians dressed in their flowing Moroccan attire.
- My younger daughter Eve and I overlooking the Mediterranean on the northern coast of Africa right before we go into Tangier, Morocco
- Musicians performing in the tea house in Tangier
- A traditional Moroccan tea service
As I’ve been growing spearmint in my “little kitchen garden” again this year, I’ve been frequently brewing a Moroccan-Style Mint Tea. I say “Moroccan-style” because I would not pretend that it has the same preparation as traditional Moroccan Mint Tea.
But my creation is close enough to what I remember to steer my mind back to the narrow streets of the old quarter of the city of Tangier in northern Africa and back to my first smell and taste ever of Moroccan Mint Tea. Maybe you will want to try the following recipe for yourself! If it is too sweet for your taste buds or has too many calories, adjust the amount of sugar as you see fit!
Moroccan-Style Mint Tea Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/3 cups water
2 individual size green tea bags
3 tablespoons sugar
a handful of fresh spearmint leaves, washed
Preparation:
1) Bring 4 2/3 cups of water to a boil in a pan on the stove. Transfer 2 1/3 cups of the hot water to your china teapot (this is the amount my china teapot holds) in order to heat up the teapot and hold it hot while preparing the mint tea.
2) Add green tea bags to the remaining hot water in the pan and allow to steep for 5 minutes.
3) Remove tea bags from pan of water, stir in sugar and bring water back up to the boiling point so sugar is completely dissolved.
4) Add spearmint leaves and allow to steep another 5 minutes. Then remove tea leaves but don’t discard.
5) Empty teapot of plain water and pour in hot tea.
6) Place tea leaves in strainer of teapot and serve tea hot.
7) Add a small sprig of fresh mint, if you wish, to each individual teacup or tea glass. Now breathe in deeply the distinct peppermint aroma. And take a sip of pure tea enjoyment!
Moroccan-Style Mint Tea Recipe
Connie Carlisle Polley, 2020-2021
ConnieCarlislePolley.com
NonnyDay.com
Alphabet Excursion and Higgledy-Piggledy, by Connie Carlisle Polley, illustrated by Courtney Coriell Williams 
Alphabet Excursion and Higgledy-Piggledy, by Connie Carlisle Polley, illustrated by Courtney Coriell Williams
Nonny's Blog 
Oh my gosh, Connie. How great to go to on an adventure like that with your daughter!! Loved seeing the pictures and your description put me right there with you, holding a heavy ornate glass of sweet smelling mint! Thank you for sharing that lovely little sliver of your trip.
❤️❤️❤️
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Sharon, it is comments like yours which make me remember why I put up these weekly blog posts!
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I had completely forgotten that Eve had accompanied you on that trip! That is a great picture and I am so glad that you have been able to do trips like that.
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I have been very fortunate to make trips abroad and Morocco was a delightful experience!
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Hi Connie…I hope you see this…..I happened to stumble onto your blog while hoping to find something about a Moroccan tea house we visited back in the early 80s! It was our honeymoon….my hubby has passed on so I can’t share memories with him any longer and my memory is fuzzy about that trip!! I can’t wait to explore your blogs and see if anything jogs my memories. I remember a very large bird cage in the middle of the tea house–I think! But I can’t remember if it was in Tangier or another city/town. We took a hydrofoil from the Rock of Gibraltar into the port of Tangier but we may have taken a bus to begin touring. There was an outdoor market…and we followed a tour through the side of a mountain along the shore line. I am so foggy on locations!
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The trip my daughter and I took was about twenty years after yours to the Moroccan tea house. But
I don’t remember a large bird cage! Tangier surely has more than one tea house. Otherwise your description of a ferry ride, tour bus, and open-air markets matches our trip.
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