Tunisian Mint Tea

When we first arrived in Tunis, it was cold and damp, and coming from Brazil, we could never seem to get warm. So we did as the locals did and drank copious amounts of tea. Tea is by far the most popular beverage in Tunisia, and every teahouse seemed to be packed with men of all ages, at all times of the day. When we ducked into our first teahouse, feeling a bit out of place, we pulled up to the bar—man, woman and children—and did our best to affect the somber expression of the men in their wool jackets who hunched over their clear glasses of chai.

The tea was a brilliant green, garnished with pine nuts and served with cookies. It tasted of mint and would have been bitter if it wasn’t so sweet. When I say sweet, I mean over-the-top sweet; it gob-smacked our palates. Craving its warmth, we managed to swallow it (though I must disclose that some of the sweeter-toothed members of our party had no problem with the sugar levels and quaffed it down lickety-split). It warmed our bones and gave us an energy kick, so we forgave the cloying sweetness and ordered another round. And another (though we did quickly learn how to say “just a tiny bit of sugar” in Arabic). Refreshed and rosy-cheeked, we left the cozy café for the cold gray drizzle.

We often stopped into tea houses as we traveled in Tunisia, and whenever we were invited to a friend’s home, we were inevitably offered glasses of tea. It was sometimes green and other times a deep-rusty red, but always strong and inevitably sweet. Tea seems to be the most evident symbol of hospitality in a culture that still knows how to treat a guest. (We were often humbled when we reflected upon how casually we treat our company back home.)

When we had made friends and become comfortable enough to invite them into our own home in Tunisia, one of the first things that we did was ask them to teach us how to prepare a proper pot of chai. This is what we learned:

Ingredients:

· 4 T. loose green tea leaves (or 4 bags of green tea)

· 2 c. water

· 1/4 c. sugar (or to taste; see caveat below)

· 1 c. loosely packed mint sprigs

· 4 t. pine nuts

Directions:

1. Add tea, mint, sugar and water to pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow tea to steep for 5 minutes.

2. Strain out tea and mint.

3. Pour remaining liquid from a height into small, clear glasses (should produce a frothy head).

4. Add about 1 t. pine nuts to each glass.

Makes 4 servings.

Caveat: This recipe calls for about half the sugar a real Tunisian would use, so if you’re Tunisian you’ll need to double the sugar. If you’re not, however, you may want to try using even less sugar than I’ve recommended (which will still produce wicked sweet tea). You can increase the amount of sugar as you build up your tolerance.