Attaya, or gunpowder tea is strong, sweet tea served in tiny glassfuls in a 3 round ritual. Water is boiled on a fuurnu with a small packet of tea leaves and a full kas of sugar, each round with added sugar to symbolize the growing sweetness of friendship. Or, alternatively, the first bitter round is for life, the second for friendship and the third is the sweetest, for love. The tea is poured impossibly high from kas to kas, up to a two foot arc without spilling a drop. This creates delicious foam. Return warga to fuurnu and bring back to a boil. Serve scalding hot. Second and third rounds add mint.
When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then – that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it.
–CS Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
November 5th, 2008 on 9:02 pm
Kari, with all due respect for an alluring blog, I beg to inform you that you stand to be corrected on this one.
I was told that the first brew is bitter as birth. The second is bittersweet as love. The third one is sweet as death. The facts of life in three gulps of rugged wisdom. Priceless.
For a glimpse at the Touareg and sub-Saharan traditions.
From the PBS’s “AFRICA – Sahara tradition”
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/explore/sahara/print_sahara_traditions.html/
I landed here via Ishtar.
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Kari Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Thanks Jerome, welcome. I love to hear of all the different Attaya traditions.
That link seems to be borked, however.
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jerome Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Bummer! Not my day.
Here’s the link to an up-to-date version.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/explore/sahara/sahara_traditions_lo.html
The above is part of PBS’s “Africa”
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/africa/index.html
From their “Africa” page, the thread goes >Explore the Regions>Explore the Regions with (without) map, tool> Sahara>The People>Traditions>Tea Pot> Read caption next to tea pot.
Got lost on your way to the tea pot?
Never mind. Browse. For solace, rely on your stash of tea and Cheerios.
This site makes for great reads.
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Kari Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 11:50 am
sounds like you need to move here. or are you here already?
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jerome Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 12:34 am
The Japanese tradition of tea might seem far removed from your cultural surrounding. However, your CS Lewis quote, especially his first sentence, reminded me of the “once upon a time, an encounter” meaning encapsulated in the Ichigo Ichie (一期一会) saying – a tenet of the tea ceremony in Japan. How about brewing Attaya the Zen way? Go get us some charcoal.
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Esther Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Kari: When you’ve completed Jerome’s profile (if he will help you out with any details that is), send over your findings. I’d love to know more about him, even though I have an inclination where all that wisdom comes from. He’s poetic too, by the way.
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Kari Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 8:48 am
ha! you smart girl.
do tell.
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November 6th, 2008 on 11:00 am
And my Bororo friends in the bush are always telling me that the first one is for the men (that’s the one I always take), the second for the women and the third for the children!
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Kari Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 11:49 am
there are different traditions in each village i’ve had it too. the first round is the best! the third gives me diabetes.
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jerome Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 1:22 am
- Nice to see you around, Esther. Kari went for charcoal. Who’s going to get that first brew?
- “the first one is for the men (that’s the one I always take),”
- Are you sure? Is not it rather the one you are handed?
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November 7th, 2008 on 6:56 am
Lol Jerome! Good to see some more of you! Didn’t know you were so correct about the details, no wonder I always turn to you for identification of bird and insect species!!
But while Kari heads off to fetch some charcoal, I’ll sit patiently under the shade and wait until you pour it up; I wonder if you’ll achieve the propper heights though without being distracted at what else goes on in the camp… :-D
Cheers from Niger!
And Kari by the way, should I bring some solar cooked sorghum cake to go with the tea?
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Kari Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 8:57 am
i’m dying to try that cake. we’ll have a fete.
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November 10th, 2008 on 6:55 am
Yes!!
Jerome, how’s you tea going? My cake is now fully baked in the solar oven.
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jerome Reply:
November 10th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
.. and three solar cooked sorghum cakes to go! welcome back in camp, Esther. sorry babe! eyes closed. aim at dharma’s eye… squirt. ain’t nothin’ to brag ’bout. am still working on it. i seem to remember you directed your readership to your personal e-mail address. is it still available to me?
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November 10th, 2008 on 3:26 pm
Lol, Jerome!
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November 12th, 2008 on 12:22 pm
Hey guys can I join the party? I can bring something also – what about cooking up some jazzy sounds with my violin :) I think it goes well with Kari’s tea and Esther’s cake …. :) and … can I please add this to the next edition of Beautiful Africa? Esther you know I love tea posts. This again reminds me of Tunis mint tea – hmmm that was so nice ….
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Kari Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
yes please, i love the violin. and tea. and cake. you can link this post wherever you desire. and many thanks.
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szavanna Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Thank you Kari – yes I will be making noise about this post ( and the others :) then …. and many thanks as well…
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November 13th, 2008 on 8:06 am
This entire blog is made for the Beautiful Africa Carnival, Szavanna!
As for tea, I think the only “Nigerien attaya” picture I have posted is still at over Ishtar News:
http://bp3.blogger.com/_7UggR9WdMOo/R25WAoqN0EI/AAAAAAAACTk/15qw7uFenlU/s1600-h/IMG_9354.jpg
Now let’s all have that uniAfrican picnic, shall we!
… Love the tea, Kari; love the music Szavanna, and lol Jerome, we just never grow tired of listening to your poetic talks!
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December 2nd, 2008 on 5:29 pm
Hey Kari, remember me from Facebook? I’m just now reading all my feeds on Hotmail which I do not log in often.
I found this one and besides the story behind it, I loved Jerome’s explanation about but I liked more the picture you took! Maybe without even thinking about your composition of the photo is awesome- the teapot behind the plate looks sub real! The whole image has an eerie feeling of day-dreamy-land (just came up with this word..lol); and to complement it the taste of that tea – I bet is delicious!
Kuddos to the tea and the photographer!
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Kari Reply:
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Grisel, how could I ever forget you? We submersed together. Thank you so much for your kudos, and now next time I’m in the US I shall have to put together some tea for you in a package. You will love it, I can just tell.
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Grisel Reply:
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 am
Girl, I’m tasting it already! I’ll make some guava dessert and we can get high on sugar! Lol!
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February 5th, 2009 on 10:45 am
Hello to all :) I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. Help me, please
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March 5th, 2009 on 3:45 pm
Ive recently been to the gambia for a university trip to make solar ovens… but while I was there I got interested the brilliant Attaya, and drank it with the locals in few places around the country.
Back home in england Im working on making a solar cooker for Attaya ( a small parabolic which focuses the sun’s light to heat the teapot, so no charcoal is needed). I saw you’re reference to a solar oven and thought you might be interested to hear the idea!
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Kari Reply:
March 5th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
thanks for letting me know, and please do keep me posted. something to consider, will this method bring water to a boil? definitely a must in Africa with suspect water sources.
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