Picture this: It's a warm day in the Sine Saloum Delta. You've been hiking and boating through the mangrove forests and islands all morning, working up quite the appetite! It's time to stop for lunch - you enjoy your meal, it's a real feast of fresh fish and vegetables, with just the right hint of spiciness - and now you need an easy way to to see in the afternoon. It's time for Senegal's famous tea break: Ataya!
Ataya - literally the gift from God (Wolof) - is a kind tea culture famous across West Africa. While each community might do the ceremony a slightly different way, including the kind of tea and how it is spiced, all up-and-down Senegal and the region more broadly, the core essence of bringing together friends and family after sharing a meal is the same. Stay long enough and you are sure to find yourself invited at some point to share in the tea culture of Senegal.
The tea is typically brewed up in a teapot, warmed over a charcoal fire. The tea is often high in caffeine and strong to the taste (bitter!), so a lot of sugar is added. What comes next requires a lot of skill and know-how: the tea is poured from the pot to the glasses, and glass-to-glass or from glass-to-pot, and back again, in order to build up a layer of aerated foam on top. Sounds simple, right? Wrong! Take it from a little Wurm with no hands, this is a challenging thing to get right, since one not only needs to pour accurately, but also to keep increasing the distance from the glass/pot in order to keep building up foam. It makes you appreciate the tea ceremony all the more!
One drinks their beverage from small glasses (rather than from a mug), in three distinct rounds. Since the leaves are re-used between rounds, differences give each round its own distinct sensation and taste. This three round system also has some beautiful symbolism attached:
The first round is bitter, like death (la mort)
The second round is gentle, balanced, like life (la vie)
The third round is sweet, life love (l'amour)
At least this is the version I heard while travelling around the delta. Turns out, other Senegalese attach their own interpretations to the three rounds of tea, seeing life, death and love differently. And I find that amazing! Inside every cup of tea, there's a story to be told!