As soon as you’re entering the house you’re invited, tea appears on the table, with dried fruits and small cakes. Tea is an appetizer, a digestive, it’s drunken the whole day and the whole night ….

“The first glass is strong like love, the second bitter like life, and the third one sweet as death” say the nomads

Tea is everywhere through all Morocco and Saharan area. Who could believe that it was in fact introduced only in the middle of XIX° century, with colonization ?
Very quickly adopted, tea spread everywhere, and the poorest Moroccan, the most lonesome nomad has always with him what’s needed to cook some tea, at least a small metal tea pot, a few glasses, a small tray, some sugar (still sold as cones) and, depending of the time of the year, mint (naâ-naâ) or absinth (cheba).

Ritual is always the same, you put a little bit of water on the fire and when it’s boiling, add tea, and in equal proportions, water, mint (stems and leaves, roughly cut) and sugar. You boil for a few minutes more, depending on your taste, pour in the first glass and pour back n the tea pot. You do that twice or thrice (it mixes sugar and oxidizes tea), and finally serve, pouring once again the tea from one glass to another, to cool it.

Enjoy.

One cannot refuse an invitation to drink tea, is a serious insult. Tea remains the perfect symbol of this Moroccan and nomadic hospitality, born of the roughness and dangers of the desert. Stays the custom not to close one’s door to the traveller asking for it.

He is Allah Laarbi, the one sent by God. These magic words will open, even in the middle of the night, the door of the small inn, or farm, when you need it. And in Morocco, who does not have money will always find a roof, a carpet where he can sleep, will be offered to share the tajine. The one offering roof and food does it for God’s sake, and to receive the same hospitality when needing it.

This hospitality can appear to you like having no limits. You’ll hear “Welcome, you’re in your own home”. Even in the poorest houses, you’ll be offered a cushion to sit more comfortable, few almonds or peanuts. In the richer places, you’ll see on the table many home-made pastries, each one more delicious than the previous, Kenza’s purses, gazelle’s horns, small corns, cake of the beginning… And while you savour them, in the kitchen, the women prepare spikes, tajine or couscous. The night passes by while you discuss, share food and tea, and soon you’re offered to stay and sleep…

Which will be most of the times in the Moroccan traditional salon, with a few blankets and you’re set.

One never asks a guest how he intends to stay. But three days are considered a good time…

Learn to enjoy Moroccan hospitality, being by a family is the best way to discover the country.
Especially when you are in touch with rather young people, you’ll be immediately invited in the family. “Ma mother would like to invite you”. Don’t forget that here people live at home until they get married, therefore this invitation is not as formal as it could be in Europe. And also, be aware that Moroccan mothers are curious, curious of foreigners, and after the tajine, they’ll come, seat by you, and ask you a lot of questions… even if they have to be translated by the children. Most mothers where young in a time little girls where not that often sent to school, and don’t know French, even less English.

For a Moroccan, invite someone and give him hospitality is the best way to know him, and get a friend. One does not betray people with whom he shared salt, it’s the worst insult, the worst betrayal, one that, in yesteryears, deserved death. Enjoy this hospitality, fully, with tact, thanks to it you’ll get to know warm and kind people. Thanks to this hospitality, you’ll leave Morocco willing to come back to see your friends.