How to make Moroccan mint tea properly

Moroccan tea is made in the pot, on the flame, not by dropping a teabag into hot water. It takes about ten minutes and it is worth doing properly, because the shortcut version is bitter and thin.

What goes in

• Gunpowder green tea — a heaped tablespoon for a one-litre pot
• Fresh spearmint — a large handful, stalks and all. Far more than looks sensible
• Sugar — traditionally a great deal. Start with four cubes and adjust
• Boiling water

The method

1. Wash the leaves

Put the tea in the pot, pour in a little boiling water, swirl it for a few seconds and pour that water away. This takes the dust and the first bitterness off the leaves. Do not skip it.

2. First infusion, saved

Fill the pot, let it stand two minutes, then pour one glass and set it aside. That glass is the essence of the tea and it goes back in at the end.

3. Mint and sugar

Push the mint down into the pot — it should be packed — and add the sugar. Pour the saved glass back in. Put the pot on a low flame and bring it just to the point of boiling, then take it off.

4. Pull it through

Pour a glass and return it to the pot. Do this three or four times. This is how the tea is mixed; there is no spoon involved.

The pour

Pour from as high as you can manage without making a mess. This is not theatre — it aerates the tea and puts a light foam on the surface of the glass, which is how a Moroccan host judges whether it was poured properly.

Three glasses are traditional, and each is meant to taste different from the last as the pot sits.

A note on the glasses

Use proper Moroccan glasses with a thick base. They are made to take tea straight off the flame. A thin tumbler will crack, and a mug misses the point entirely.