North African Mint Tea

North African mint tea

One thing I have learned is that mint tea is wildly popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa. While the Middle East tends toward black tea with mint, North Africa prefers green tea with mint. Any search for North African or Middle Eastern tea brought up Moroccan mint tea right away. Further searches of YouTube videos for neighboring countries also brought me back to Morocco. I did find a slight difference with preparation in Algeria, so I started testing things out, and learned A LOT.

Morocco and Algeria agreed on using gunpowder green tea. Gunpowder is a complete tea leaf that is rolled into a ball when it is dried. Gunpowder green tea originated in the Zhejiang province of China. The little balls unfurl as the tea steeps.

Dry gunpowder tea

The difference was that some people in Morocco rinsed their tea leaves, and some didn’t. The video from Algeria showed the tea and mint being rinsed in hot water 3 times before brewing. So I started with an experiment with rinsing vs not rinsing my tea. I rinsed the tea 3 times with hot water per the video. The first rinse is to "open" the leaves, and the next 2 rinses are to clean them. (The tea leaves do not automatically open when water hits them, so they looked more like wet tea pellets after rinsing.) My tea was labeled organic, so I wasn’t really worried about herbicide/pesticide residue. I thought that maybe it would decrease the little bits floating in the water after straining the leaves out of the tea. That didn’t happen.

(the rinsed tea is on the right)

I did discover a slight difference in color. I also found that it really changes the flavor of the tea. The rinsed leaves have a brighter, lighter flavor. The unrinsed leaves have a heavier, more earthy flavor (my sister is snickering right now. In 4-H we used “deep earthy flavor” as a code for “it tastes like dirt” for the many dud recipes in our project books). I want to be clear, it doesn’t taste “like dirt”, but I couldn’t think of a different way to describe it.

So we move on to the mint. Apparently there is something called Moroccan mint, and it has a different flavor than other varieties of mint. I don’t have that. There was a suggestion that spearmint or peppermint be used instead. I don’t have that either. For whatever reason, I had a hard time finding mint plants this year. After passing up a $3.00 organic mint pot with one scraggly plant in the middle, I finally found a passable mint plant to live on my window sill. I live in an apartment, so growing things outside isn’t a possibility.

In the Algerian tea video, the vlogger said that they try to avoid making bubbles in their tea. So I gently poured my tea through a strainer into my cup and let it sit. 

Isn't it pretty.

The pictures and videos always show a perfect sprig of mint floating in the cup of tea.

Then I strained the rest of the tea in the teapot out into a measuring cup with mint leaves for aeration. It turns out there was a little problem with this method of straining the tea leaves out.

 

I tried to take a picture of the inside of the teapot, but it was too steamy for the lens. After a little back washing, the problem was cleared up and the tea leaves were removed. Mental note to self, brew in a measuring cup, then strain into teapot in the future.

Teapots used in the region typically have a strainer that fits in the spout to avoid this problem. Unfortunately I don't have one. Traditional teapots featured in the videos I saw were tall and slender. As luck had it, I found a teapot at a local thrift store that reminded me of Moroccan teapots. I didn't check the inside to see if it had a strainer. Also, given the fact that I don't have endless storage space, I didn't feel like paying $10.00 to essentially rent the teapot from Goodwill before I donated it back to free up some space. I did, however, take a quick picture.

One Moroccan tea video aptly stated in their instructions to aerate the tea “until your arms fall off”. I didn’t quite go that far, but basically you pour some tea out of the teapot into a cup, then pour it back into the teapot. You keep doing this to mix the tea, aid the steeping of the mint, and create a nice layer of froth on the tea for serving. So I had fun doing this over the sink for a bit... making a mess, but my arms are still attached. The aeration is also used to cool the tea down. Then I poured it into a glass and placed it beside my Algerian style tea. They both steeped for the same amount of time, so you can really see the difference of aeration with the mint leaves rather than letting them sit undisturbed.

So how did they taste? Honestly, about the same. I have had some trouble getting the mint flavor to come through (I think my water was a little too cool when I got around to adding the mint). While the sprigs of mint look nice, they don’t impart their flavor well, so I took them out, rolled them up, rubbed them and tore them a bit and put them back in. Now I got some mint flavor. In the end, I think the Moroccan version did get a little more mint flavor. Both were good.

How did I make it? I used 2 scant tsp of gunpowder green tea, and maybe 1.5 cups (375 ml) of water. While some people actually boil their green tea for several minutes, that causes the tea to taste bitter. I did some research and found that green tea is brewed best between 158-176 degrees F (70-80 degrees C - I will admit I was using the Celsius scale on my candy thermometer because it was way easier to read). 

The tea was brewed for around 2 minutes, and I used 2 sprigs of mint (one for each cup). Sugar is traditionally added to the tea - sometimes to make it a dessert, but it is also made without sugar. I opted for the non-sugar version.

It was a refreshing tea. I can see how it would be so popular. I will admit, I have a thing for a bagged green tea with mojito mint and matcha right now. I joke that on a good day at work I have 1-2 cups of tea, but on bad days I have 4 or more cups of tea. I will definitely be sticking to my bagged tea at work, but this is a new, fun way to make it at home. 

Originally I was planning to buy some peppermint in the bulk food section of the grocery store to try this again sometime. Then I found some tea labeled as Moroccan mint in the bulk food section of another grocery store. You know what happened next. It says that it uses Willamette mint, which I must say tastes a lot like peppermint to me. I boiled my water, let it sit a minute, rinsed my tea, then swirled some hot water in my teapot before brewing for 2 minutes. Well, I actually used a glass measuring cup with a makeshift cover on it so I wouldn't repeat the embarrassment of a stopped up teapot spout. While I did aerate my tea a bit after brewing, most of the bubbles were gone by the time I found my camera. The mint flavor of this tea was good. It definitely worked better than the fresh mint in imparting its flavor. With a little more experimentation, I'm sure I could get better with the fresh mint, but this is way more convenient.