flipGreen Mint Tea from Southern Algeria
Green Mint Tea from Southern Algeria
Why this dish? During his stays in North Africa, Gide shared mint tea, a central gesture of local hospitality. This sweet, fragrant drink punctuates his Algerian pages like a punctuation mark of encounter with the other and with the climate.
A green tea infused with a generous handful of fresh mint and plenty of sugar, poured from a height to create foam. The drink of Maghrebi hospitality, offered at any hour of the day.
One does not refuse tea there; that would be refusing the man who offers it. It is poured from very high, in a thin stream that sings into the glass, so sweet that my Protestant habits trembled. I would sit, I would drink, and time would unravel. I learned under those tents that slowness too is a school.
- •Green tea (gunpowder) — one spoonful (base)
- •Fresh mint — a large bunch (flavor)
- •Sugar in a loaf — generously (sweetness)
- •Boiling water — one teapot (infusion)
Green Mint Tea from Southern Algeria
A green tea infused with a generous handful of fresh mint and plenty of sugar, poured from a height to create foam. The drink of Maghrebi hospitality, offered at any hour of the day.
Why this dish? During his stays in North Africa, Gide shared mint tea, a central gesture of local hospitality. This sweet, fragrant drink punctuates his Algerian pages like a punctuation mark of encounter with the other and with the climate.
One does not refuse tea there; that would be refusing the man who offers it. It is poured from very high, in a thin stream that sings into the glass, so sweet that my Protestant habits trembled. I would sit, I would drink, and time would unravel. I learned under those tents that slowness too is a school.
Ingredients (period version)
- Green tea (gunpowder) — one spoonful (base)
- Fresh mint — a large bunch (flavor)
- Sugar in a loaf — generously (sweetness)
- Boiling water — one teapot (infusion)
Ingredients
- Gunpowder green tea — 1 tbsp (base)
- Fresh mint (nanah) — 1 large bunch (flavor)
- Sugar — 4 to 6 lumps (sweetness)
- Water — 50 cl (infusion)
Method
- Rinse the tea in the teapot with boiling water, discard this first water to remove bitterness.
- Pour fresh boiling water over the tea, add sugar and let steep 3-4 min.
- Add the mint and let infuse 2 min.
- Serve by pouring from a height to aerate and form a light foam; taste and add sugar if needed.
How it was made : Sweet mint tea spread in the Maghreb in the 19th century, with green tea arriving through trade. It became the heart of the hospitality ritual, served in three glasses said to go 'from sweet to bitter like life'.
The contemporary twist : Add a few leaves of absinthe (chiba) or verbena in winter, as in the South, for an aromatic bitterness.
André Gide · Charactorium
