What to Drink in Essaouira: Coffee, Mint Tea & Mocktails

Ask what to drink in Morocco and most people say one thing: mint tea. That's not wrong, but it's not the whole picture anymore, especially in a town like Essaouira, where a genuine mint tea tradition now sits alongside a real specialty coffee scene and — less expected, but worth knowing about — some of the better non-alcoholic drinks you'll find anywhere in the country.

Atay isn't just a drink here, it's a small ritual. Green tea, a generous handful of fresh mint, and sugar (traditionally quite a lot of it, though it's increasingly common to ask for less), brewed and then poured from a height — the pour isn't just for show, it aerates the tea and builds a thin foam on top that's considered part of getting it right. Being offered a glass of it is a genuine gesture of hospitality, not just a beverage order, and turning it down can read as more than just a preference in some settings.

Traditionally, tea is served in three consecutive glasses from the same pot, each tasting slightly different as the leaves steep further — a well-known Moroccan saying puts it as the first glass being as gentle as life, the second as strong as love, and the third as bitter as death. The tea itself is a more recent addition to Moroccan culture than most people assume: the gunpowder green tea at its base only arrived in the country in the 1800s, brought by traders looking for new markets, and Moroccans built the ritual around it from there rather than inheriting it wholesale.

What's newer is the specialty coffee side of things. A proper flat white, a well-pulled espresso, matcha and chai lattes sitting on the same menu as Moroccan tea — this blend didn't really exist here a decade ago in the way it does now, driven largely by the same wave of remote workers and long-stay travelers who've made coworking spaces viable in a town this size. The coffee itself is generally taken seriously rather than treated as an afterthought to the food menu, which isn't something you could always say about smaller Moroccan towns even five years ago.

Iced versions of most of these have become just as common as the hot ones, especially once the wind and sun pick up in the warmer months — iced Americanos and iced lattes show up on most serious café menus alongside the traditional hot options, rather than being a summer-only afterthought.

This is the part that surprises people most. Morocco is a majority-Muslim country, and alcohol isn't the social default the way it might be elsewhere — which means a genuinely well-made non-alcoholic drink isn't a consolation option here, it's often just the main event. The better places treat mocktails with real technique rather than just soda and a lime wedge: fresh fruit, proper syrups, things built to actually taste complex rather than just "not have alcohol in it." An Aperol-spritz-style drink made without the Aperol but with real attention to balance, or something built around elderflower and lime, can genuinely hold its own against the real thing if it's made properly — and increasingly, in Essaouira, it is.

Worth a mention too: Essaouira's produce leans into this well. Fresh orange juice is everywhere and genuinely fresh, not concentrate, and smoothie/juice combinations built around carrot, ginger, and seasonal fruit are common on menus that take the drinks side seriously. It's a small thing, but it's part of why the drink culture here feels more thought-through than a lot of towns this size.

A reasonable approach if you're only in town for a short stay: start the day with mint tea rather than coffee, at least once, ideally somewhere you can watch it get made rather than just handed to you already poured. Move to specialty coffee for focused work hours — the caffeine hit is more predictable and the oat-milk-and-espresso combinations are genuinely good at the better spots. Switch to a mocktail or fresh juice in the afternoon once the wind picks up and the terrace gets busier. None of this is a rule, just a reasonable way to actually taste the range of what's on offer rather than defaulting to the same order every time.

Essaouira's steady Atlantic wind — the reason it's nicknamed the "Windy City of Africa" — genuinely shapes what people order through the day. Mornings tend to be calmer, which is when a hot mint tea or espresso on the terrace still makes sense; once the wind picks up in the afternoon, iced drinks and something to sip inside become the more realistic choice for a lot of regulars, rather than fighting the breeze with a hot cup. It's a small, practical thing, but it's part of why the drinks menu here leans as heavily into both hot and iced versions of the same drinks as it does.

The drinks menu at Noqta Space runs across all of this rather than picking one lane — Moroccan mint tea (Atay) alongside specialty espresso and matcha, a small mocktail list built around real ingredients (grapefruit, mint, and cucumber in one; elderflower and lime in another), and fresh juices made from actual fruit. If you're working from a coworking desk for a few hours, it's genuinely easy to go from a morning espresso to an afternoon mint tea without leaving your seat.

In some licensed restaurants and bars, yes, but it's far less central to daily social life than in many other countries — which is a big part of why non-alcoholic drinks here are taken more seriously rather than treated as an afterthought.

Green tea, fresh mint, and sugar, traditionally poured from a height to build a light foam on top.

Increasingly, yes — driven largely by the growth of coworking spaces and long-stay remote workers over the past several years.

They're common across Morocco given the cultural context, but the quality varies a lot by place — Essaouira's café scene tends to treat them with more genuine technique than a basic tourist spot might.

An iced Americano or a plain sparkling water with a squeeze of citrus are both easy, unsweetened options most places carry alongside the more elaborate mocktail lists.

Traditionally, yes, it can come across that way — it's considered a gesture of hospitality rather than a simple drink order, so accepting even a small glass is generally the more graceful option.

In practice, yes — hot drinks are more common on calmer mornings, and iced versions become the more popular choice once the afternoon wind picks up, which is reflected in most local café menus offering both.

If you only try one thing from this list, make it a proper mint tea, poured the traditional way — it's the single easiest way to understand the hospitality this drink represents here, and it costs almost nothing to find out. See the full drinks menu to plan what to try next.