How To Make Moroccan Mint Tea At Home

Moroccan tea, also known as maghrebi mint tea, is a centuries old tea tradition. It’s a combination of green tea, fresh mint, and sugar (but don’t worry it’s common nowadays to enjoy it without sugar too!). But the tradition is in how you actually serve it!

On my recent trip to Morocco, I enjoyed Moroccan tea daily and learned both how to make Moroccan mint tea and properly serve it. So here’s a traditional maghrebi mint tea recipe, with tips on how to make it with every day tea essentials.

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

Jump to Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe

What Is Moroccan Mint Tea

Moroccan Mint tea is a delicious tea blend of mint, green tea, and optional sugar. It can be misleading that Moroccan mint tea is not actually an herbal tea blend, as it does have caffeine from the green tea. This is important to be aware of, if you’re more sensitive to caffeine.

Moroccan tea is traditionally served to welcome guests to your home and after dinner to digest a good meal.

P.S. If you’re planing a trip to Morocco, read more of my Moroccan travel guides.

What’s Special About Moroccan Tea

Moroccan tea is special in how it’s served to guests. It’s poured from a teapot at the highest height possible. Although it seems like a fun competition and challenge today, it does serve a purpose.

It’s believed that the higher pouring height removes some of the bitterness of the green tea. The higher you pour, the more in contact the tea is with the air, creating more bubbles as it hits your glass. This allows the tea to interact more with oxygen, removing tannins from the tea. Unfortunately, this hasn’t actually been scientifically proven.

a horizontal view of someone pouring tea from a silver tea pot. They are holding a light blue cloth because the teapot is still hot. The teapot is high above the two teacups below, yet the tea is still managing to make it's way into the cups - without too much spilling out. Thankfully the cups are on a silver tray to catch any droplets of tea. The tray is on a rich red wooden table. The wall behind it is white adding a nice contrast to the image and making it very obvious what the subject is, the pouring of the Moroccan tea.

But pouring from a higher height does actually cool down the tea to be at a much better drinking temperature! And it’s still a very fun tradition to take part in. In Morocco, it almost felt like a competition of who can pour the tea from the highest height.

To properly pour Moroccan tea, place your glasses on a tray below you and pour from as high up as you can without missing. This may make a bit of a mess, but it will definitely be a lot of fun to try.

Pro tip to reduce bitterness of your Moroccan tea: If you really want to reduce the bitterness of your Moroccan tea without adding sugar, use a cooler water temperature to steep your tea leaves (I use a temperature controlled kettle to get a lower temperature!). Green tea is very sensitive to heat as it’s a non oxidized tea (it hasn’t come into contact with air yet). When you steep green tea in boiling water, it brings out more of the tannins, making the tea taste more bitter. Try steeping your tea at a temperature closer to 180°F (instead of 212°F!). P.S. Read my tips on how to make the perfect cup of tea every time!

a white background (countertop) with a patterned intricate silver tray. The silver tray is filled with everything you need to make traditional moroccan mint tea: a pink pinch bowl filled with granulated sugar, a green pinch bowl filled with gunpowder green tea, a bunch of fresh mint leaves still on the vine laying flat on the tray. Two Moroccan tea cup, one is pink and one is blue, each with gold patterns on them and filled with more fresh mint leaves. And finally in the back, but still on the tray, a silver moroccan mint tea pot with a beautiful pattern.

Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe

Moroccan mint tea is the perfect way to welcome and wow guests into your house with a sweet, caffeinated, and fresh tea.

Total Time: ~10 minutes

Yield: 2 cups (~ 4 portions in Moroccan tea cups!)

what looks like a floating silver teapot is on the right most edge of the photo poking in. It has a triangle lid and a very defined spout pouring out yellowish tea into a decorated glass cup below. It has gold designs on it, and the bottom half is stained glass navy blue. You can still see that there are fresh mint leaves inside. Next to it is a second almost identical cup, except this one has a red bottom. They both sit on a decorated silver plate, which is on a nice wood table.

Kitchen Equipment

Kettle (I love my Cuisinart electric kettle)
Measuring Spoons
A Tea Set: A Traditional Moroccan set (Moroccan teapot, tea cups, Moroccan serving plate) OR Kitchen Essentials (mug, tea strainer, pot)

Ingredients

Makes 4 Moroccan Tea Cups (2 cups)

4 cups boiling water
2 tbsp Gunpowder green tea (about 1 tbsp / cup water)
1-2 bunches fresh mint leaves
Optional: sugar (2- 2.5 tbsp)

Instructions: Maghrebi Mint Tea Recipe

For some recipe tips continue reading below or jump to them now.

Boil 4 cups water.
Add 2 tbsp tea leaves to a tea pot. Once water is boiled, add just enough water to cover the tea leaves.
Let the leaves sit for about a minute.
Pour out the liquor into a cup and save it for later (this is “The Spirit”)
Repeat this process one more time to clean the leaves. The tea leaves have opened up so you’ll need to use a bit more water than before to cover the leaves. This time, stir the tea pot around to coat all the leaves evenly. After about a minute, discard this infusion. This is dirty water from the tea leaves.
Optional: add 2-2.5 tbsp sugar
Fill 3/4 of your teapot one final time with boiling water. You want to leave enough room for your fresh mint leaves at the top.
Reboil your tea – depending on your tea pot, you can do this in one of three ways…
a) The traditional way: place your teapot on the stove. On medium / low heat, bring the water back to a boil. Once boiling, remove your teapot.
b) Alternative: If you can’t place your teapot on the stove, like myself, use a pot to reboil your tea instead. Add the contents from your teapot into a traditional pot and bring it to a boil on the stove.
c) If you don’t add sugar, you can skip this step: This step is really for dissolving the sugar into your tea. If you don’t add sugar, you don’t have to reboil your tea (p.s. reboiling your tea will also result in stronger tasting tea, so you might not need the sugar!). But be sure to reboil your water immediately before adding it to your teapot to ensure that it’s as hot as possible.
Optional: add back in The Spirit of the tea for a stronger tea flavour. For a weaker tea, don’t add back in the Spirit. If you’re adding sugar, it’s recommended to add in the Spirit to counterbalance the sweetness.
Add fresh mint to the top of your pot. Let it sit for a few minutes to steep.
Once steeped, pour 1 to 3 glasses of tea and it add back to your teapot. This cools down the tea and mixes it so all your guests have the same balance of flavours.
Optional: If you have more fresh mint leaves, add some to the bottom of every glass.
When you’re ready to serve, pour your tea from as high up as possible.

how to make moroccan mint tea: a closeup of a moroccan tea glass tea cup. The bottom is navy blue, gold patterns start halfway up and lead into the clear glass. The glass has a curved shape making it easier to hold when there's hot tea inside. The tea is filled up about 3/4 of the way, and you can see some fresh leaves floating at the top. In the background is a very blurred silver teapot and a bushel of leaves.

A Guide To The Ingredients For Moroccan Tea

There are three key ingredients to making a traditional maghrebi mint tea: fresh mint (nana), gunpowder green tea, and sugar.

The mint adds such a nice freshness to the tea. It’s not the same as using a dried mint tea leaves that you might already have in your tea cupboard. For the freshest mint flavour, you’ll want to be sure to add it at the end of your steep AND to each glass.

Mint is locally grown in Morocco. You won’t be able to store fresh mint leaves for very long, I buy it from my local grocery store when I know I want to make Moroccan mint tea.

Gunpowder green tea is a green tea from China. It’s actually one of the only types of green tea that doesn’t come from Japan. It’s known for its’ higher caffeine content, rolled shape to resemble gunpowder (it’s namesake), and having a little bit of smokey taste.

an overhead photo of the ingredients needed for moroccan mint tea on a white and gold marbled counter. From left to right: A green pinch bowl filled with brown dried green tea leaves, one step of fresh mint leaves that are vibrant and bright green, and a pink pinch bowl filled with white sugar.

Gunpowder green tea is much stronger than Japanese green teas. It’s not as delicate or fresh in flavours, making it perfect to combine with mint and sugar for Moroccan tea. You can order gunpowder green tea online, or try to find it at your local tea shop or Mediterranean / Middle-Eastern Supermarket.

Sugar has a huge significance in making Moroccan mint tea. It’s added to balance the bitter flavours of the gunpowder green tea, but it was also a symbol of wealth. The more sugar you added to your tea, the wealthier you were. Today though, it’s a purely optional ingredient – in fact, I prefer it without any added sweetness!

Interested In Tea Tasting? Get The Tea Tasting Bundle!

Refine your tea palette with my Tea Tasting Guide and take notes on every new tea you try to remember for next time in my Tea Tasting Journal.

See the bundle on Etsy.

P.S. Use my code ATRLOVE for an extra discount on my Etsy Shop!

A gold serving tray on a white background is filled with everything you need for moroccan mint tea: three decorative moroccan mint tea glasses with mint leaves inside, a silver decorated moroccan tea pot, a pinch bowl with sugar, a bunch of fresh mint tea leaves, and a pinch bowl of green tea

What Are The Benefits of Drinking Moroccan Mint Tea

Both green tea and mint have health benefits that make drinking this tea even better! And for the healthiest version, you’ll want to leave the sugar out of the teapot unfortunately…

Green tea has loads of antioxidants, like catechins. These kill free radicals in our bodies which can lead to cancer and other diseases. Green tea is also seen as an immune booster, an anti-inflammatory, and even helps with anxiety.

Mint is also filled with some health benefits, mainly as a digestive aid. This makes it perfect for drinking if you have a stomach ache, or just to enjoy after a meal to help you digest.

You might also be interested in: 5 Health Benefits Of Tea To Make You Live Longer

an easy display of all the ingredients for moroccan mint tea on the silver moroccan tray. A bushel of fresh mint leaves, sugar, The spirit (first infusion of the tea), gunpowder green tea, and finally they're all steeping together in a silver moroccan tea pot, the lid is open to show the tea leaves and hot water inside.

What is “The Spirit” of Moroccan Mint Tea?

The Spirit is the essence, or soul, of the tea. Whenever you make Moroccan mint tea, you pour out the first steep, and this becomes “The Spirit”. It will be VERY strong and bitter. You can save this on the side to add back into your tea if you want, or choose to discard it alltogether.

It’s important to not confuse the Spirit with your second infusion. The second infusion cleans the tea leaves and should be discarded.

You’ll notice a very big difference in the colours and the clarity of the Spirit versus your second infusion. The Spirit will be a bright gold colour, and much more clear. The second infusion will be “dirty” (more opaque), and the liquor teeters on a browner yellow.

A vertical image of two matching doubled walled teacups in the foreground. The only difference is the colour of the tea inside. On the left is a lighter brighter orange and more clear. An arrow points out from it and says: The Spirit to Keep. the cup on the right is darker, more brown in liqueur and an arrow points out that says: The Second infusion to discard.

Is Moroccan Tea Caffeine-Free?

Moroccan tea is not caffeine free. The base of Moroccan tea is gunpowder green tea, which is from the Camellia sinensis plant and contains caffeine.

Even though you rinse your tea leaves twice, this does not remove too much caffeine. It may remove some of the caffeine, but it won’t be entirely caffeine free. You’d have to steep the leaves for about 15 minutes to make it caffeine-free, and you’d also be loosing a lot of the flavour at the same time.

If you make Moroccan mint tea the traditional way though, you aren’t consuming too much caffeine. A single portion is only about a half a cup of tea.

from the top left corner a silver decorated tea pot comes into the frame, the spout is pouring a light gold liqueur into a glass cup below, it already has some fresh mint leaves in it. The cup is on a silver tray to catch any of the spills from the pour

What’s A Traditional Moroccan Tea Set?

The complete Moroccan tea set is comprised of three essential items: a teapot, cups, and a tray.

The teapot is a typically made from silver, copper, or brass. There are many designs for traditional Moroccan teapots. Fancier designs with patterns and legs are meant for special occasions, especially for serving guests. But for more of a daily use Moroccan teapot, you can get a simpler teapot with a flat bottom. You’ll want to find one with a good spout to be able to pour from though. And you want to make sure that it has a built in strainer to avoid getting any loose tea leaves in your glass.

The glasses are typically smaller than your normal tea mugs, only about 6 oz. This will only fit about 3/4 cup of tea, and you won’t want to fill them the whole way either (the glass heats up quickly, so you want to leave room at the top to still hold the cup without burning your fingers). So they really only serve about 1/2 cup of tea at a time. You can find them as clear simple glass, or with colours and intricate patterns.

The serving tray isn’t exactly necessary, but it does serve three purposes. It gives you a place to display your teapot and cups, tp serve to guests easily, and the tray catches all the water droplets when you’re pouring your tea. I like this silver tray with handles.

a moroccan tea set on a wooden table. There's a silver tea tray, a decorated silver moroccan tea pot and three moroccan tea cups that have gold designs and red and pink bottoms.

How To Make Moroccan Mint Tea Without A Traditional Set

You don’t need a traditional tea set to enjoy Moroccan tea at home. Here are my tips for making it with whatever tea accessories or kitchen essentials you have!

If you don’t have a Moroccan teapot, but own any other kind of teapot, follow the same recipe steps with a few exceptions. For example, if your teapot doesn’t have a built in strainer, use a mini strainer over each cup to catch the tea leaves that fall out instead.

And as I mentioned, instead of placing your teapot on the stove to reboil your tea, use a regular pot.

Then to serve your Moroccan tea, use any tea cups you already own, maybe just don’t fill them up the whole way!

A moroccan tea pot with legs sitting on an induction stove that is not working.

a pot on the stove filled with tea leaves and water starting to boil

Interested In Tea Tasting? Get The Tea Tasting Bundle!

Refine your tea palette with my Tea Tasting Guide and take notes on every new tea you try to remember for next time in my Tea Tasting Journal.

See the bundle on Etsy.

P.S. Use my code ATRLOVE for an extra discount on my Etsy Shop!