How to Make Tea

Making and drinking tea is an important social process, integral to every meeting, all work, and every relationship.  You could literally spend all time between meals making tea, and that would be perfectly socially acceptable.  So in case you ever find yourself in Senegal and need to impress, here’s how to make tea:

Materials: 100 cfa box of tea, 100 cfa bag of sugar, 3 sprigs of mint, water, small tea kettle, small charcoal burning stove, plate to serve the tea on, charcoal, two shot sized tea glasses

1.       Pour 3/4ths of the bag of tea leaves into the pot along with three glasses of water.

2.       Boil until water bubbles the color of the tea leaves.

3.       Add one overflowing shot glass full of sugar to the kettle.

4.       Boil until it smells like burning sugar.

5.       Take off the stove and add a large sprig of mint.

6.       Pour tea into one glass, back into the kettle, then into the other glass.

7.       Pour the tea back into the first glass and let it cool until you can hold the glass.

8.       Pour that tea back and forth between the glasses until you’ve made a sufficient amount of foam.

9.       Pour the tea back into the kettle and reheat slightly while washing off the outside of the glasses (they’re probably sticky from spilling a little while making foam) making sure to leave the foam on the inside.

10.   Pour the tea into the glasses and serve two people at a time until everyone has gotten some tea. The size of the serving depends on how many people are there so that everyone gets tea and so that all the tea is used.

11.   Add the rest of the tea leaves to the kettle and add three more glasses of water to make the second round of tea following the same directions above.  This round uses slightly less sugar.

12.   The last round has no extra tea leaves added but the same three glasses of water and the rest of the sugar.