We had heard a rumor… deep inside the maze of Fez’s old city, a man served the best tea in Morocco. “Once you have this tea, you’ll never be able to drink another cup the same,” they said. Fez being three hours away by an overheated train would be no obstacle.

A Fezzi acquaintance had promised to take us to The Tea Man, as he was known to us when we stopped in Fez for a few hours on the way to the airport for fall break. At 6 am we walked to Agdal Station, ready for our taste buds to be wowed and our colleague to help us translate.

“It’s too early, unfortunately. We won’t have time. Go to the corner of the square and ask for the tea man,” his text read as we rolled into Fez Station. A tough blow. We had planned to interview The Tea Man and now learned we did not have a translator. Even more pressing, the only thing we knew about this place was that it was near a certain square and to ask for “Moul Attai.” We didn’t even have a name.

Undeterred, we entered the medina, determined to drink the best tea of our lives. We wove through the streets, surrounded by copper and jewelry, balghas and djellabas, until we found ourselves, miraculously, in the correct square. Alhamdulillah, something was going right!

But there were no tea shops on any of the corners. No tea in sight. We strode into a jewelry booth and, as my friend perused the copper finery, I asked the proprietor where we might find the tea. Reaching for the correct Darija to explain the situation I told him that someone had told us there was “a tea man” nearby. Did he possibly know what we were talking about or where we should go?

Sitting under a mop of silver hair, his gentle face lit up. “Of course! Follow me!” And off we went down the alley until he deposited us in front of the most vertical staircase I’ve ever seen. He wished us good luck and set off down the road as we ascended the stairs into the smallest palace of herbs and flavors.

Stairs to the tea shop. Photo credit: Slon, 2023.

Sitting above the bustle of the alley below, the tea shop consisted of one room big enough to seat seven squished people and two tiny tables on a terrace filled with boxes of herbs. Mint exploded from every corner, barely contained by its boxes and bags. At the back of the cramped room a giant copper kettle, a cafetiere, sat on heat boiling water all day long.

Next to the cafetiere, half obscured by a mountain of herbs, stood The Tea Man himself. Set on using our Darija despite the disappointing absence of our translator, we sat down and introduced ourselves as journalists (a part of our Community-Based Learning experience). Of course, he would answer our questions, he said but was promptly sidetracked by a consistent stream of customers. Locals came in for coffees to go, and tourists came in with their Moroccan tour guides, eyes sparkling with the novelty of the experience. The tour guides’ eyes sparkled when they realized we –foreigners-- were there without guides and were speaking Arabic.

The tea shop with the cafetiere bubbling in the corner. Photo credit: Slon, 2023.

Once the bustle died down, Sidi Abdullah –the Tea Man’s actual name—sat down beside us, happy to oblige our stumbling questions.

Sidi Abdullah started the tea shop in 1969 when he was no more than a teen. He drinks coffee and tea, though only drinks coffee in the morning. When we asked where he learned his special recipe from, who taught him to make tea with such perfection he simply pointed up with an emphatic “Alhumdullilah.” Although he has five kids, none of them plan to take over the business and Sidi Abdullah is proud of all of their other accomplishments.

The tea from Sidi Abdullah’s shop is known for having six different herbs. While Fezzi tea is commonly made with mint and sheeba (wormwood or absinthe) in the winter, every cup here is made with geranium, sheeba, verbena, common mint, spearmint, peppermint, and marjoram, giving the tea a complex, full flavor. The herbs are sourced from local vendors who deliver the goods from the souk every morning.

To make the tea, Sidi Abdullah places a single-serving copper pot over heat and adds sugar, a pinch of dried green tea, and hot water from the cafetiere. As the sugar water boils and bubbles, he continues to add more water until there is a full cup. He likes his tea sweet so beware, when you ask for just a little sugar, it still tastes like candy! Once the tea mixture is at the desired concentration, Sidi Abdullah adds a panache of the herbs to a glass cup. The hot tea mixture is then strained over all six of the herbs. The cup, now full of magic and love, is placed inside a silver outer cup with a handle for comfortable drinking. The whole concoction costs 10 dirhams, but the environment in his tiny shop is priceless.

Some might think the special herbal recipe comes from a family recipe, was some kind of medicine, or was the drink of choice on the family farm, but no. When asked why he makes his tea so complex and special, Sidi Abdullah is all practical: in a country where everyone and their mother drinks tea all the time, a businessman has to stand out.

And Sidi Abdullah’s tea does just that. So, if ever you find yourself in Fez, go to the Safreen Square and ask around for the Tea Man.

Sidi Abdullah and us before we hit the road. Photo credit: Leila Moghadasi, 2023.

Tal Slon is a student from the University of Southern California studying abroad on the Amideast Morocco Area and Arabic Language Studies program during the Fall 2023 semester.