Best Cafés in Essaouira — Coffee and Mint Tea in the Windy City

Café life in Essaouira is unhurried and salt-tinged. The heart of it is Place Moulay Hassan, the main square just inside the ramparts, where terraces spread out under the sky and locals, artists and travellers linger over coffee and mint tea watching the town go by. From here it is a short walk to the sea walls and the fishing harbour, and cafés dot the medina lanes and the ramparts with their views over the Atlantic and the whitewashed, blue-shuttered town. The near-constant Atlantic wind that earned Essaouira the nickname the windy city keeps the air fresh and the mood cool.

The orders are the Moroccan classics: mint tea (atay), poured sweet and fragrant from a height, and coffee as nous-nous (half coffee, half milk), qahwa kahla (black) or café cassé. Being argan country — the trees grow in the hinterland behind the town — Essaouira cafés often serve amlou (the almond-argan-honey spread) with bread, and fresh orange juice is everywhere. The town's creative, bohemian streak, tied to its Gnaoua music heritage and its long draw for artists, gives many cafés a relaxed, arty character.

What makes an Essaouira café distinctive is the setting and pace: the sea light, the wind, the sound of gulls and, at festival time, gnaoua rhythms drifting through the medina. Rooftop and rampart terraces catch the ocean view, while the square is the place for people-watching. It is a town made for slow café hours between wanders through the souks and along the beach.

Pick a terrace on Place Moulay Hassan or a rampart café with a sea view, order a mint tea or a nous-nous, and settle in — Essaouira runs at an unhurried pace, and one drink buys a long, breezy stay. Bring a layer for the wind, which picks up in the afternoon even in summer.