The Melting Teapot

Today's email held a nice surprise -- a fun photo of tea from my sister  and brother-in-law, who are currently in Tunisia.

"Here is a picture of our tea and espresso. . . The tea is almond tea which is just the mint tea with almonds floating in it. It only tastes like almonds if you eat them. Yesterday I had thea de menthe (mint tea) twice and it always comes in little glasses. It is about 2 dinars which is $1.50."

Tammy is quite a world traveler, and this month she has been visiting first Sicily and now Tunisia.  The two countries are on different continents, but a ferry ride across the Mediterranean Sea gets you from one place to the other.  Tunisia sits at the northernmost point in Africa, with the Mediterranean on its north and the Saharan desert at its southern end. The capital city of Tunis is in the northeast of the country, situated near the Gulf of Tunis.

Tammy says it has been a bit chilly and rainy the past couple of days, and she describes Tunis as "a bustling city with lots of sidewalk cafes. People just sit with espresso or mint tea and watch the crowds walk by. We did that ourselves a couple of times yesterday.”

My Virtual Trip to Tunis

Wow!  Watching the world go by while sipping tea sounds like the perfect way to spend an hour or two. I haven’t ever been to Tunis or Tunisia, so I decided to take a virtual tea tour as a way of learning more about the country. I started by making my own cup of tea to sip while clicking through photo galleries, travelogues, and videos.

Luckily, we had some Gunpowder Green Tea in the cabinet, but it is too early in the year for mint from our herb garden.  I still sweetened the pot with sugar, to keep the cup at least partly authentic to the region. Even with the sugar, the tea is a little bitter and would probably be much nicer with a handful of fresh mint enhancing the flavor.  I'll have to remember to give this a try again when the mint is growing.

Tea is a widely-practiced custom across northern Africa.  According to wikipedia sources, “Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, consume respectively 1.4, 1.5 and 0.7 kg of tea yearly per capita. “ Most of the tea sipped there is mint tea, which is generally gunpowder green made with fresh mint, lots of sugar, and sometimes pine nuts (or, in my sister's case, almonds).  If you'd like to make some for yourself, here is a typical recipe: North African Mint Tea.

For even more information, here is an easy-to-follow video from a woman named Allia, showing how to make Moroccan Mint Tea:

I’ve had this type of tea in the U.S. at various Moroccan restaurants, but it is surely better when sipped at a sidewalk café on a cool and rainy day in northern Africa. This must be the type of bustling sidewalk cafe my sister described:

Tunis seems to have quite a café culture; there are even cafes on rooftops.  Here’s a nice video from someone who was “sitting at a cafe atop this building and listening to the call to prayer at dusk in Tunis.”  It looks to be in an older, less modern, part of the city (perhaps in the medina area).

I’ll end this blog post by encouraging you to listen to some music while looking at some beautiful photos. Here's a link to a contemporary song by Tunisian-French singer Amin: Le Dernier Qui Parle. While you listen to that, click over to TrekEarth for more photos that are related to tea in Tunisia.

TrekEarth is always one of the first places I go when virtually exploring another country.