Gunpowder Green Tea and Moroccan Mint Tea

Gunpowder is a Chinese green tea, made mostly in the province of Zhejiang. After picking, the leaves are withered, softened with steam to stop oxidation and then rolled one by one into small, tight pearls before being dried. These dark, shiny pearls gave the tea its English name: they looked like grains of gunpowder.

The rolled shape also has a practical advantage: the leaves expose less surface to the air and the tea stays fresh for longer, a precious quality when it travelled for months by ship. The smaller and tighter the pearls, the finer the tea: the best grade is called pinhead.

In the cup Gunpowder gives a yellow-green liquor with a bold, clean, lightly toasted taste and a faint hint of smoke. As they steep, the pearls unfurl back into whole leaves.

Like all green teas, Gunpowder turns bitter if the water is too hot or the steeping too long. For a 250 ml cup use one pyramid infuser or 2-3 g of pearls (a scant teaspoon), water at 85 °C and 3 minutes of steeping. The same leaves can be steeped a second time, adding a minute.

If your kettle has no thermostat, bring the water to the boil and let it rest for 3-4 minutes before pouring.

Tea reached Morocco in the nineteenth century with British merchants, and Gunpowder, robust and easy to keep, became the tea of all North Africa. Combined with fresh mint, which Moroccans already drank as an infusion, and plenty of sugar, it became mint tea: in Morocco it is called atay, and it is much more than a drink. It is offered to every guest, served after meals and sipped throughout the day.

It is made in a metal teapot with a long spout and poured from a height into small glasses, often decorated in gold: the stream aerates the tea and forms a light foam on the surface, the sign of a well-made tea.

Tradition calls for three glasses, and a desert proverb describes them like this: the first is bitter like life, the second is strong like love, the third is sweet like death. Refusing them is considered rude; after the third, a polite guest gives thanks and takes their leave. We tell more about it among the tea ceremonies of the world.

For a teapot of about 750 ml (4-6 small glasses):

1. Put a heaped tablespoon of Gunpowder (about 8-10 g) in the teapot.
2. Pour in a glass of boiling water, swirl for a few seconds and throw the water away: this “washes” the tea and removes excess bitterness.
3. Fill the teapot with boiling water and let it steep for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add a generous bunch of fresh mint (the traditional kind is nanah, a spearmint) and sugar to taste: in Morocco as much as 3-4 tablespoons.
5. Let it rest for another 2-3 minutes, then pour a glass and return it to the teapot two or three times, to mix without bruising the mint.
6. Serve by pouring from a height, raising the teapot as the glass fills, to make the foam.

Tradition uses boiling water and a bold taste, softened by the sugar. If you prefer it less sweet, use less sugar but also shorten the steeping, so it doesn't turn bitter.

Fresh mint makes the difference, but it isn't always at hand. There are two alternatives:

• ready-blended: our Arabian Nights follows the recipe of the nomadic peoples of the Maghreb, with Gunpowder and two varieties of nanah mint. One infuser per cup, water at 80 °C and 4 minutes; traditionally it is sweetened generously;
• do it yourself: put Gunpowder and an infuser of Fresh Mint, made only of mint leaves, in the teapot, and adjust the mint to your taste.

In summer mint tea is lovely iced too: make it a little stronger, sweeten it while hot and let it cool before serving it over ice with a few mint leaves.