Moroccan Tea: authentic culture
Teapot and two cups of Moroccan tea:
A magnificent picture from AKLIM mountaintop in Taroudant’s region in Morocco, this towering mountain where next mountains turn –for watchers- into some disappearing dwarfs. In these high mountains generally one fells smaller and null.
The landscape and boundaries become limitless and disappearing; at these moments one needs a cup of tea which is boiled on a cool fire, to which added some of medical herbs like “thyme” “wormwood” that can be easily found in this region, so that This teapot may stand lofty as this high mountain does.
Moroccan culture roots:
Moroccan culture has many singularities that differentiate it from Arab and neighbor countries. It’s the intermarriage between a group of ethnics and minorities like: Arabs, Imazighen, Jews, Africans...these groups have melted-without losing its particularities- to create a rich culture.
Moroccan tea: a symbol of hospitality
Moroccan tea is one of many cultural symbols that are still stronger despite the fast changing in Moroccan society. As a consequence, Morocco is always the first consumptive of Chinese green tea in the world. Moroccan Tea is not just a drink that is present in the Moroccan tables at least three times per day, but rather it’s a sign of hospitality and generosity.
Moroccan tea rituals are very different than any other country in the world. To the level that good tea is connected with Morocco in some parts of the world. The successive generations have maintained the Moroccan tea rituals. We still find persons in some of Moroccan regions whose job is to prepare tea in different occasions like:
Feasts, Weddings, Funerals, Circumcisions…they usually take their place in a corner of the guests’ room. So, one person is preparing the tea, while others talk to each others. He takes all his time to prepare tea and sometimes he interferes in some topics. When tea is ready another man’s duty is to distribute tea cups over the guests, and the first to take their cups is diabetics who drinks tea without sugar.
Moroccan tea is also connected with herbs like: meant and absinthe. Meant is added to Moroccan tea in summers and in hot days. Absinthe is added to Moroccan tea in winters and in cold days.
Moroccan’s believe that meant is a cold herb so it helps human body in hot days to renew its activity, so does absinthe in cold days.
Hicham Ibaakiline
