A Nice Cuppa

The movie Casablanca is a Hollywood fabrication full of glamour, grit, and characters whose dialogue is far too smooth to be authentic. Yet the movie is true in its portrayal of Morocco as a place of intensity and fever. It???s a place where the heady air might knock you over and the eyes that lock with yours on the street might follow you around for blocks. Where all of your senses have to play catch-up as they are bombarded by cinnamon, olives, musty air, passing women in burkas, stooped doorways that beg to be peeked into.

I visited Morocco several years ago, as a traveling college student during a semester abroad, and though it was brief, I was intoxicated by my visit there. I have many memories from this trip, all documented in technicolor pictures, but the one experience I recall most vividly was my encounter with the tea.

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When my traveling companions and I arrived in Morocco, it was after midnight and we were noticeably disoriented and befuddled at the ferry port. There, we were greeted by a local man clothed in American gear with a smile like an electric eel, equal parts disarming and engaging. His name was Mohammed, and his profession appeared to be fishing (with good intentions) for lost foreigners who disembarked in obvious states of confusion. So, he became our guide, leading us to a hostel and then touring us around the next day for a sum most of us would call paltry. That following morning we met up with Mohammed and his friend, a fisherman who remained nameless, and skulked around the terribly narrow streets following their sinewy figures; me with ???Rock the Casbah??? by the Clash running circles in my head.

After a lunch of pigeon bisteeya (much tastier than it sounds), Mohammed and the fisherman then took us to one of many carpet stores to coax money from our American pocketbooks.

I was skeptical at first, as they seated us on stacks of the softest rugs while the store clerks swarmed around us bearing trays of mint tea and peppering us with appeals to drink up and enjoy.

The tea was served in tall, thin glasses with silver handles; phosphorescent mint sprigs gleamed at the bottom of each glass. My friends and I sipped hesitantly at first, then eagerly; it was sweet and perfumed and strong like spearmint. It was the kind of potent tea that you could feel announcing its presence on the tongue before running down your throat and into your belly. There was something, too, about drinking it from a glass and not a mug; something that made it feel like an elixir. That, and its combination of sweetness and herbaceous flavor, created a complex and refreshing taste that I???d never quite experienced before.

Mint tea is more than a beverage in Morocco ??? it???s part of a way of life. Of sharing moments and conversation, gratitude and congratulations. It???s a drink had at all occasions, and one served to foreigners such as myself with a distinct air of pride.

It???s so inviting, in fact, that it???s even been known to make innocent tourists succumb to the persuasions of a rug vendor.

(I couldn???t walk away without buying something???).

To make Moroccan mint tea for yourself at home, try the following recipe adapted from RecipeZaar.com.

Moroccan Mint Tea

Ingredients
10 sprigs fresh mint, plus 6 extra for garnish
3 teaspoons green tea
3 tablespoons sugar (or more to taste)
4 cups water

Boil the water in a pot.

Combine 10 sprigs of the mint, the green tea leaves and sugar in a teapot with some of the water, then pour the rest of the boiling water into the pot.

Let the tea brew for about three minutes.

Strain one cup of tea into a measuring cup and then pour it back into the pot to help the sugar dissolve.

Stick a sprig of mint into the bottom of six cups and strain the tea into each.