Three Rounds · Ceremonial Green Tea
Attaya
Photo: T.K. Naliaka / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Each of the three rounds is brewed to taste completely different on purpose — bitter, then sweet, then barely-there — and together they're meant to symbolize the stages of life.
Attaya is Chinese gunpowder green tea brewed strong with mint and sugar, then poured back and forth between glass and teapot from a height to build up a foamy head. It's prepared slowly over three rounds at roadside stalls, markets, and street corners across Mali, often taking an hour or more to finish.
Why it's made this way: The ritual is less about the tea itself than the socializing it forces — friends and strangers alike sit together through all three rounds, making attaya a cornerstone of everyday Malian social life.
More from Mali
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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