Trade & culture
The Tea Trade and Morocco
Morocco grows no tea, yet it is among the most devoted tea-drinking nations on earth. The explanation is trade: green tea grown in China travelled across the world through European commerce to reach Moroccan ports, where it met local mint and sugar and became a national institution.
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- 7 min
- Topic
- Trade & culture
- Updated
- 19 July 2026
At a glance
- Morocco does not grow tea; its tea is imported, historically Chinese green tea.
- European merchants carried tea into Morocco, with a major expansion in the 19th century.
- Trade turned an imported leaf into the country's defining drink of hospitality.
An imported leaf
Every glass of Moroccan tea depends on a long supply chain. The tea plant is not native to Morocco, and the gunpowder green tea that Moroccans favour is grown in China, then shipped thousands of miles to North Africa. This makes tea, for all its cultural centrality, fundamentally a product of international trade.
Small quantities of tea reached Morocco relatively early, prized as an expensive novelty among the elite, but for a long time it was a luxury rather than a daily habit.
How trade spread the habit
Tea drinking became widespread through the growth of trade in the 18th and especially the 19th centuries, as European merchants supplied Moroccan markets and the leaf became cheaper and more available. As it spread down the social scale, it fused with Moroccan tastes for mint and heavy sweetening into the drink recognised today.
- Chinese origin: gunpowder green tea, rolled into pellets, the trade staple.
- European merchants: traders, notably British, supplied tea to Moroccan ports.
- 19th-century boom: the century in which tea became a truly popular custom.
- A local reinvention: imported tea transformed by Moroccan mint and sugar.
A national institution
Once established, tea became far more than a drink. It anchored hospitality, punctuated the day, and gave rise to a whole material culture of ornate teapots, trays and glasses. A popular story links the decisive spread of tea to redirected British consignments in the mid-19th century; whatever the exact truth, trade is unquestionably the reason tea reached and conquered Morocco.
The ritual that grew around it is its own subject. Read on with the history of Moroccan mint tea and sugar and the Moroccan sweet tooth.
Frequently asked questions
Does Morocco grow its own tea?
No. The tea plant is not native to Morocco, and the country imports its tea, historically gunpowder green tea grown in China. Only the mint and sugar are local, which is why Moroccan tea is fundamentally a product of international trade.
How did tea reach Morocco?
Tea reached Morocco through international trade, carried by European merchants who supplied Moroccan ports. It was known earlier as an elite luxury, but became widely available and popular through expanding trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.
When did tea become popular in Morocco?
Tea drinking became a widespread popular custom through the 18th and especially the 19th centuries, as trade made the leaf cheaper and more available. Before that it was an expensive novelty limited mainly to the elite.
Why gunpowder green tea specifically?
Gunpowder green tea — leaves rolled into small pellets — was the type carried by the China trade and it became the Moroccan standard. Its brisk flavour stands up well to the generous mint and sugar of Moroccan tea.