Ataya

Most Senegalese people can't live without their Ataya, a sugary green tea that's served in small glasses. The people at my home don't do it much, but a lot of my friends in the neighborhood do it as an everyday ritual and invite at least a few people over every time. The tea has a really strong flavor and is made with a metric ton of sugar. It doesn't appeal to many expats, but I happen to like it.

It takes about twenty minutes for each round of glasses and you can expect three or four rounds. Like most activities in Senegal, Ataya is usually a time for friends to hang out and talk to each other.

Making the tea is just as important as drinking it. Heating the tea, mixing the sugar, cleaning the glasses, all have to be done in a very certain way. Even if I had done this every day after being here for six weeks, I wouldn't be able to do it like these guys. It's really amazing to watch.

The tea is cooked in little teapots on top of mini charcoal grills or on a small butane stove. Like a latté, the foam is really important. To get a good foam on top of each little cup, they pour hot tea back and forth between two cups fifteen or twenty times. This gets the tea mixed and bubbly without using spoons or anything. This is part of the spectacle. The cups are usually pretty far apart when they do the pour-mix thing, making you wonder how they are so coordinated and never burn their hands. Then, they pour the liquid back into the teapot to steep longer, leaving the foam behind in the glass. They do this for each cup, usually about three or four, before finally pouring the tea back into the foamy glasses. The foam sits on top of the thick, green tea and proves that it was well-made.