West Africa is located between the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad, and the Gulf of Guinea. West Africa generally includes Mauritania, Western Sahara, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, and Canary Islands, etc., a total of 17 countries and regions.
West Africa is in or around the Sahara Desert, the largest in the world. Its climate and people’s dietary characteristics are like those of Morocco and other countries in North Africa. Therefore, most people here also like to drink tea. They are used to adding sugar and mint leaves (or juice) when drinking tea.
Mauritania is in the west of the Sahara Desert in Africa. More than 90% of the country’s territory is desert area. It is a country mainly based on animal husbandry. It is said that the history of tea drinking in Mauritania originated in the 16th century, and was first introduced from Spain.
According to annual statistics from the World Tea Association, Mauritania imported $24.06 million in tea from China in 2021. Mainly medium to high-end chun mee green teas such as 41022, 41022AAA, 8147 and so on.
Drinking green tea is an ingrained habit in the lives of Mauritanians. Due to the dry and hot climate, people are prone to fatigue, and the living habit of eating beef, mutton, and camel milk as staple food has led to uneven nutrition. Tea can help digestion, cheer up the spirit, eliminate fatigue, and supplement vitamins.
In Mauritania, there is also the etiquette of “serving tea when guests come”. When knowing that guests are coming to visit, the host will prepare tea in advance. In traditional customs, tea is usually brewed.
Mauritanians like drinking strong sweet tea. In this Islamic country, people start drinking tea after praying every morning. Usually, tea leaves are put into a small porcelain pot or a small copper pot to be boiled and drank. After the tea boils, sugar and fresh mint leaves are added, and then the tea juice is poured into a glass the size of a wine glass and it is ready for drinking. The color of the tea is like coffee, and the tea tastes sweet and mellow, with a refreshing mint flavor. Mauritanians need about 30g of tea leaves once to make tea, and the quality of the tea leaves is required to be strong and moderately flavored, and the color of the soup will remain unchanged after multiple times of brewing. They like tea with a darker color, so if the tea is stored for a longer period, it will become more popular. Mauritanians generally drink tea three times a day, three cups each time, and on holidays, they drink tea more than ten times.
Basic etiquette can only be completed after three rounds of tea between host and guest. The first round is a cup of tea soup with a small amount of mint, strong and bitter flavor, followed by a slightly sweet tea soup with more mint flavor, and finally a cup of tea soup with sweet and strong mint flavor. Generally, 3 to 4 sugar cubes are placed in a small cup of tea.
“Three rounds of tea” is a traditional tea drinking custom, but now some Mauritanians are no longer so particular. Drinking tea is basically based on personal needs, and most of them use the method of brewing.
Due to the high temperature and dryness, Mauritania is not suitable for growing tea. So far, it has no self-produced tea and relies entirely on imported tea, most of which is imported from China.
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