Is the coffee good in Morocco?

Coffee in Morocco is better than most people expect, because the French left behind a genuine café-espresso tradition. The everyday cup is a small, strong, dark-roasted espresso, and Moroccans drink a lot of it. The default house style leans bitter and intense — sometimes spiced with a pinch of black pepper, nutmeg or sesame in the old-fashioned "café épicé" you find in traditional spots, which is worth trying once for the aromatics alone.

You order by the format. A café noir is a straight espresso; a café cassé is an espresso "broken" with a splash of milk; and the beloved nous-nous (literally "half-half") is roughly equal coffee and steamed milk, the national comfort drink. There’s also café au lait for a milkier cup. Quality at an ordinary street café is usually solid — these places pull dozens of shots an hour and know what they’re doing — though it can be over-extracted and harsh at the cheapest end.

What’s genuinely exciting is the specialty-coffee wave sweeping the cities. Casablanca leads it, with serious roasters and baristas doing proper flat whites, V60 pour-overs and single-origin beans; Marrakech’s Gueliz and Rabat’s Agdal have followed. Places like Café Bloom or Kaowa in Marrakech, and the design-led spots in Casa, would hold their own in London or Melbourne. If you’re a coffee snob, you will not go thirsty in the big cities.

My practical advice: in rural areas and small towns, expect simple, strong, perfectly decent espresso and don’t hold out for latte art. In the medinas, lean into the spiced traditional versions as a cultural experience rather than a caffeine fix. And if you need a really good cup to start the day, I’ll always point you to a specialty café in whichever city you’re waking up in — I keep a running list for every destination we send clients to.