Green tea with mint

Green tea is popular referred to as the Gun Powder tea in west Africa because of the way it is wrapped and rolled into small pellets, which look like old-fashioned gunpowder. The Chinese call it zucha (pearl) tea for the same reason. Rolling the tea leaves helps preserve the flavor; a desirable quality considering the tea's journey from Asia to Africa. Some Chinese green teas, called Moroccan-style Tea or Moroccan Mint Tea, come with mint already mixed in.

Ingredients

Gunpowder tea (or any green tea), one teaspoon for each cup

Cold water

Fresh mint leaves

Sugar to taste

Directions

Bring the water to a near boil in a teakettle or saucepan (Don't use water that has been boiling for any length of time). Pour the water into a teapot and add the tea, and then the mint leaves. Allow to the tea to steep only a few minutes. (Green teas should not be steeped as long as black teas.) Pour the tea through a strainer or use a tea infuser to separate the tea leaves from the tea..

Serve immediately, with lots of sugar. The Western African style of serving involves holding the tea pot high above the table and pouring the hot tea at least twelve inches through the air into small glasses. (Glasses made of glass, not porcelain cups.) If the sugar is added to the pot, the tea is sometimes poured from the glasses back into the pot (before anyone has sipped) and the process is repeated. This mixes the sugar into the tea. Western Africans generally drink their tea very sweet.

You can also serve with a hot plate of eba or rice.

However, you may wish to make an iced-tea beverage. (Iced green tea is very good, though this is not the African way). The best way to make iced-tea is to follow this recipe and then pour the hot tea over enough ice to chill it thoroughly (do not use a glass pitcher: the suddenly changing temperature could shatter it), then place the iced tea in the refrigerator. Placing hot tea in the refrigerator without icing it first will make the tea cloudy.