The question that often arises and can regularly cause heated discussions: Can you drink Moroccan tea or atay without sugar and is it still real Moroccan tea? The answer to that is: YES!
Traditionally, a lot of sugar is added to Moroccan tea. Beautifully wrapped sugar loaves that are deftly divided into small pieces with a hammer. When you think of atay, you automatically think of sweetness. But why do we actually add sugar? In Moroccan tea culture it is often customary to let the tea continue to boil, which causes the green tea to boil over and become very bitter. This means you need sugar to be able to drink the tea at all. Otherwise it is not possible, unless you can tolerate strong tea without sugar. The disadvantage of this is that it can have an impact on health in the long term. If you drink sweet tea every day, this can have consequences. But how can you drink tea without sugar and still have it taste good?
There's a trick for that! At least. Actually, gunpowder tea should not be boiled. Gunpowder tea is a type of green tea that tastes best between 80-90 degrees. You can brew the tea at the right temperature using a kettle with an adjustable temperature. If you use a normal kettle, you can add a dash of cold water once the water has boiled. By making atay at the right temperature, you still get the smoky taste of the tea without it becoming too bitter. This way you don't have to use sugar in the tea. You can also compensate by adding flavors such as jasmine, cinnamon or rose leaves.
Healthy
Gunpowder tea has many health benefits: One of them is that the tea is healthy for people with diabetes. Drinking atay without sugar daily can help regulate blood sugar levels. Gunpowder is rich in the substances catechins and alkaloids that provide this effect. That is why it is strongly recommended to brew this tea at the right temperature and to drink it without sugar.