Mint Tea

Mint tea is the national drink of Morocco. It is drunk before any serious business such as buying a carpet. The convention is that small talk is made until the third cup has been drunk when the matter in hand may be broached. Moroccans drink it all the time but unlike the chinese who carry flasks round with them mint tea is always made fresh and you can see young men scurrying around between shops and offices with trays of tea. The tea is brewed with chinese "gunpowder" tea and presented with a large bunch of mint and sugar. The mint is stripped of leaves which are torn and added to the brew together with humungous amounts of sugar. Often this is a hunk of sugar cone this being one of the few places still usung cone sugar complete with tongs just as our victorian for bears did. The whole is ceremonious poured from a height into the special tea glasses and then repoured into the pot and the process repeated several times until sufficiently mixed.  It is of coarse a diabetic nightmare  but don't be tempted into agreeing to tea without sugar as this is inherently a hot sherbet and as with sherbet is nothing without sugar. Moroccans drink tea several times a day and at the end of every meal. I assume its something like a regular dose of Red Bull to keep you going.