Mint Tea in Morocco - component and influences to human body
The history
Brewing and drinking mint tea is not just a habit for Moroccans nowadays, but also a significant part in their culture to show their friendliness and hospitality to guests. Mint tea originated from Britain and spread into Morocco in the 18th Century. However, there’s no direct evidence to prove whether it was given to the Moroccan leader as a gift from the English queen or it was brought through trades during the Crimean War. The main ingredients of making traditional moroccan mint tea are mint leaves and sugar. Usually, Moroccans use spearmint leaves as the main component. However, absinthium and other kinds of wild mints can also be used for tea. As the largest importer of Chinese tea, traditional Moroccan mint tea is not completely made of mint, but also with gunpowder tea, a kind of Chinese green tea from Zhejiang Province.
Moroccan mint tea drinking tradition:
Traditional moroccan tea wares include a teapot, several tea glasses and a serving tray. Berrad is a special kind of teapot Moroccans always use to pour the tea, as its unique shape is suitable to have a long pour. Pouring water and mixing tea with sugar and mint leaves are two main steps of the process. People clean loose tea with boiled water before it dried. Usually, the water in the teapot needs to be poured out and back two or three times in order to mixed well, since the first cup of tea is the essence. Also, it is better to swish water around to make sure every corner inside the teapot is touched. Garnishing mint leaves into the cup may be an optional last step before the tea is done.
The preparation and process:
The way they pour mint tea (associated with physics):
Pouring tea after it is completely brewed is an interesting and scientific part: Moroccans always pour tea from a certain height (usually one or two feet high above) to aerate the tea as well as to thoroughly infuse the mint flavor. “We want this action to cause froths on the surface of the tea.” one of the waiters worked in Dar Naji, a traditional Moroccan restaurant said. In addition, another reason of pouring tea high above is that it is a symbol of respect and the height partly depends on the status the guest.
The influences of mint tea to human body:
Moroccan mint tea is not only a daily beverage, but also do benefits to people’s health. As a type of green tea, Moroccan mint tea has a high level of antioxidant which can lower the risks of cancers and heart diseases, against cancerous cells and increase the life expectancy in a way. Also, there are many mineral elements in the main ingredient of it - mint, including calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, magnesium and manganese, selenium and fluoride. Besides, it is rich with some vitamins, such as carotene, a kind of precursors to vitamin A. Riboflavin, also called Vitamin B2, is a dietary supplement to provide Riboflavin. The great amounts of Thiamine (Vitamin B1) it contains are necessary for the metabolism of carbohydrates. Other components such as Niacin and Folic acid (both are Vitamin B) are good for neutral health. It is even amazing to see that “Twenty-seven milligrams of vitamin C are in each standard portion of mint.” According to an article from FITDAY Website. And they well functioned together to give healthy effects on human body: pacify digestion problems with stomach, release breath airways, calm your mood and help increase the attention, relieve the pain of symptoms, unblock congestion and improve the skin quality.
Information section(Chinese gunpowder tea):
Gunpowder tea is a kind of " round fried green", also known as "flat fried green" in China. It is named because of its originated place: Pingshui Town from Zhejiang Province. Because of the unique climate, temperature and humidity, it is mostly grown in China and is known as “Green Pearl”. It was first produced in Tang Dynasty and then spread to Taiwan. Gunpowder tea is then exported to the Maghreb in the preparation of traditional North African mint tea. The method of making Moroccan mint tea nowadays is adding mint and sugar or honey to gunpowder tea while brewing. Moroccan domestic market consumes more than 60000 tons of tea per year, 98% of them are from China, mainly gunpowder tea and chunmee tea. The exported tea to Morocco occupied the first position according to China's Tea export customs statistics in 2015.
