Culture · December 2025 · 5 min read
Three glasses of tea, and what each one means
Life, love, death — or so the proverb says. We asked a tea seller in Zagora what he actually thinks.
Brahim has been pouring tea on the same corner in Zagora for nineteen years. He does it from a height, a thin gold stream into a small glass, and he does not spill. The first glass he set down in front of me was almost bitter.
The proverb
You will hear it everywhere: the first glass is life, the second is love, the third is death. Sweetness increases as the glasses go on.
Brahim shrugged when I asked. “It is a nice thing to tell visitors,” he said. “For us it is more practical. The first glass you give to a guest who is tired. The second while you talk. The third to make them stay a little longer.”
“Tea is not a drink. It is a way of making an hour exist.”
How it is actually made
Gunpowder green tea, rinsed once with boiling water. Fresh mint, a lot of sugar, and then the pour — back and forth between pot and glass to aerate it and build the foam. The height is not showing off; it makes the tea taste rounder.
Refusing the third glass is allowed. Refusing the first is not.