Morocco celebrates a very vibrant and traditional coffee culture. While most of the countries are game with experimental coffee recipes, the infusion has affected Morocco to the minimum. The act of serving coffee lies within the conforms of communal practice. There are certain traditional ways of preparing the perfect Moroccan coffee or the café cassis, which is more of an espresso type and can be spiced up with cinnamon and cardamom. Another famous coffee preparation is called the café nss nss. The café nss nss is prepared with half water and half milk and offers a more sweet taste. Coffee with clove, coffee with black pepper and coffee with Ras el Hanut are other favored types of Moroccan coffee.
The perfect coffee is made from grounded beans which are roasted over a charcoal brazier and then added to hot water. The coffee powder is allowed to settle at the bottom of the cup or final. Sugar is added to coffee on request. Generally when the drink is served at auspicious occasions it is served as hilweh (sweetened coffee) while at death ceremonies the coffee is rendered sugar free or murrah. The Moroccan serves the coffee with the help of a Delah which is a brass or aluminum enamelware. The host generally goes round the gathering serving the hot beverage. And a close of the cycle requires the guest to shake his cup offer praises like ‘fi sehtuk’ / ‘fil afrahh’ (to your health/ to your happiness) before surrendering the coffee cups to the host.
If one is traveling in morocco and want o explore the coffee culture a visit to places like Marrakech, Tangier, Essaouira and Adagir are must. Another interesting act about the Moroccan serving coffee is that they enjoy the drink over fruits like dates. This is a very common custom in morocco.
Serving coffee in morocco is not an indiscriminate act. Coffee is served by maintaining certain traditional practices. As to who would be served coffee first depends much on caste custom age and sex.
