Rabat – For the British, tea is more than a drink. Long and detailed the history of the nation’s favorite beverage may be, the average Brit knows nothing about it, but it’s a love affair repeated in every household with each new generation. 

There is no universal way the British drink their tea – most commonly it will be black tea with milk and ‘with or without sugar?’ Divides the drinkers into two separate camps. 

‘Builders’ tea’ refers to black tea with milk and two teaspoons of sugar, but anyone replying to the inevitable question of how they take their tea with ‘standard’ or ‘normal’ as a response will be met with utter confusion. 

There is no standard cup of tea for the British (although I maintain that anyone not adhering to the strict order of teabag/milk/sugar is probably a psychopath).

Wood shades are used as a common comparison; ’the colour of pine’ or ‘mahogany-like’ to give the tea-maker a clue as to how much milk to add to create the matching color palette – and here is the artistry of British tea making. 

If unsuccessful, you risk ruining the drink for the guest – however if you manage to navigate through these vague descriptions, requests, and cryptic instructions to create the perfect, tailor-made cup of tea, you might as well add it to your resume. It’s not only a life skill you now possess, but perhaps a new personality trait, and one you will have to maintain with consistency!

The Moroccan way

During a work exchange in Japan, I bonded with a Moroccan volunteer over our shared habit, love, and obsession of tea, but quickly learned that the British and Moroccan approaches to tea are very different.

For the British, tea consumption varies depending on the household. Some will have a formal style tea at a set time each day, whereas others will multitask with a chipped mug of tea in hand while working. A warm cup of tea held in cold hands brings comfort in the unpredictable (and often rainy) British weather, but the making of the tea, whilst specific, holds no ceremonial rules or norms. Each to their own – it’s the consumption that matters. 

For Moroccan’s this is very different. Tea is served in glasses that are only used for tea drinking – not filled to the brim, but with space left to hold the glass without burning your fingers. Cups should be filled from a great height, creating foam as part of the preparation process, and tea moved from glass to glass, filling each in turn. 

Circular trays are prepared – a physical embodiment of the collective community culture of the country. Tea is never drunk alone at home, and multiple glasses are arranged on a tray – even if there are just two people enjoying tea –  in preparation for more guests possibly arriving. 

For the British visiting Morocco – this is a tea-culture not to be missed, with coffee shops, restaurants and cafes serving different variations of mint tea. The silver trays and teapots, the ornate, decorated glasses – it all has to be sampled on a trip to Morocco if you are British – your tea drinking reputation requires it.

Bsaha and Cheers! 

Read also: Find more on drinking tea the Moroccan way here.