Sahrawi Tea

Medium·25 min active + 5 min resting

The three-glass ritual of the Sahara — strong green tea boiled with fresh mint and heavy sugar, poured from a height into small glasses to raise a foam, and served in three rounds, each milder than the last. The sacred heart of Sahrawi hospitality.

Green Tea

Mint

Sugar

Saharan/Sahrawi tea is served in three rounds (famously 'bitter as death, sweet as life, gentle as love'), poured from a height to foam; it is the central ritual of hospitality.

Sip Sahrawi tea through its frothy head and it is hot, intensely sweet, and bracingly minty, the green tea bittersweet and strong beneath. Bite: sugary and aromatic, the mint cooling, the foam soft on the lips — and each of the three rounds tastes different as the leaves give up more. More than a drink: the slow, generous ritual that welcomes a guest to the desert tent.

Boiling (not just steeping) green tea extracts a strong, bittersweet brew; heavy sugar and mint balance and perfume it. Pouring from a height aerates the tea to raise the prized foam and cools it slightly. Re-steeping the same leaves three times gives the ritual's three progressively milder, differently-flavoured rounds.

Variations

With more mint. With pine nuts (Maghreb). Less sweet. With wormwood (chiba). With verbena. Extra-foamy.

On the Palate

Where Sahrawi Tea sits in the Sahrawi flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Actually boil the tea rather than steep it, and pour from a height back into the pot a few times — the boiling pulls a strong bittersweet brew and the high pour aerates it into the prized foam.

Techniques

Boiling

Ingredients

Serves 3

2 tbspGreen Tea

1 bunchMint

5 tbspSugar

How it's made

7 steps · 25 min active + 5 min waiting

1
3 min
Rinse green tea (gunpowder) leaves with a little hot water to wash, then discard the rinse.
2
5 min
Add fresh water to the teapot and boil the tea a few minutes.
Watch out
Let it come to a rolling boil and hold it a few minutes; the liquor should darken and smell strong.
3
2 min
Add a generous amount of sugar and a bundle of fresh mint.
4
5 min
Bring back to a boil to dissolve the sugar and infuse the mint.
5
5 min
Pour a glass from a height and return it to the pot, twice, to build foam.
Watch out
A good pour raises a stable, creamy head of tiny bubbles; keep pouring back until it holds.
6
3 min
Pour into small glasses, each with a frothy head.
7
4 min
Serve the first round; re-steep for the second and third, milder rounds.