We have a friend who lived in Morocco and at a recent visit, taught us how to make the real thing — Moroccan mint tea. You need Chinese Gunpowder green tea as the base, but we didn’t have itunfortunately. My wife had the genius idea of using Houjicha Gold — I was a bit concerned because of the thought that the roasted flavor could take over, but since I knew this could take boiling water, we tried it anyway. (For loose leaf, we didn’t have any other options that could take boiling water very well).
We went out to the small garden in front of our place and picked enough fresh mint to fill up a whole English pot (40oz water) full of mint leaves. We boiled around 36 oz water, added 6 tsp sugar, and poured it over the leaves. Then we turned the fire back on until the water re-boiled. I poured 12 oz this mint-water over the (3 tsp loose leaf) houjicha in a smaller pot, and steeped the houjicha according to the normal directions (boiling for 30 seconds). (Thus, we were able to re-steep the houjicha 3x using 12 oz each time.)
It came out extremely delicious! Minty, sweet, and a very small hint of roastedness.
Our friend said it was reminiscent of the times having tea in Morocco with friends. :-) The secret was using fresh peppermint (especially from right there in the garden!). SO delicious. If this was a separate tea of its own, I’d give it a 90-95.
I’m sure we’ll make it again when more peppermint becomes available.
