Tabaski festival drink — green tea brewed strong with ginger, mint, and sugar, poured high to foam, served in shot glasses.
Senegalese tea ceremony («attaya» in Wolof, from Arabic «atāy») arrived with 18th-century trans-Saharan trade in Chinese gunpowder green tea. The bouna name attaches specifically to the spiced festival version drunk during Eid al-Adha (Tabaski) and Korité (Eid al-Fitr).
China Green Tea Co. exports the 3209 «special gunpowder» grade specifically for West Africa; Senegal imports 14,000 tonnes a year. The pouring height is taught by a teranga (hospitality) elder, never measured. Glass-clink is the «cheers» equivalent.
Three rounds: first bitter as life, second sweet as love, third gentle as death — Wolof proverb. Each pour is two ounces in a shot glass, foam two inches deep. Ginger sharp at the front, mint cool at the back, sugar carrying both.
Chinese gunpowder green tea (3209 grade is standard) boiled 15 minutes with sliced ginger, fresh mint, and 1:1 sugar; poured from a height of 30-50 cm between two glasses six times to aerate. Foam («fass» in Wolof) is the marker of skill.
Variations
Plain attaya (daily, no ginger), bouna Tabaski (with ginger, festival), bouna with cloves (older Lebou variant), and the Dakar youth version that adds Wagjir mint (Mentha sativa) cultivated at Diamniadio.
On the Palate
Where Bouna sits in the Senegalese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 3How it's made
4 steps · 12 min
- 15 min
Brew 30 g green tea in 500 ml just-boiled water 5 min; strain.
Watch outPull the leaves at 5 minutes — steep them longer and the brew turns harsh and bitter behind the mint.
- 23 min
Add 60 g sugar + 4 mint leaves + thumb of ginger; boil 3 min.
- 33 min
Pour back and forth between teapot and shot glasses from arm's length to foam.
Watch outRaise the pot high and pour in a thin ribbon — you want a thick cap of foam on the glass; that head is the whole point.
- 41 min
Serve very hot in shot glasses.
Watch outServe it scalding — this tea is meant to be drunk hot, and cooled it goes flat and bitter.
