What herbal and medicinal teas does Morocco have?

Everyone knows Moroccan mint tea, but the herbal world behind it is far deeper and one of my favourite things to explore with clients who are into wellness. Moroccans treat tea as medicine as much as refreshment, and the herb you add tells you the season and the ailment. In winter, the classic is sheeba — wormwood, the bitter absinthe herb — added to green tea for a warming, slightly medicinal cup that’s believed to settle the stomach and ward off cold-weather sluggishness.

For calm and sleep, the one to know is louiza, lemon verbena, brewed alone or with a little green tea. It’s fragrant, soothing, and what a Moroccan grandmother gives you when you’re wound up or can’t sleep. Salmia (sage) is the digestive after a heavy meal, and many families keep a sage-and-mint blend going through winter. Fliou, a wild pennyroyal mint, makes another bracing cold-season brew you’ll smell in mountain villages.

Then there are the souk herbalists — the attarine — and visiting one is an experience in itself. These shops are walls of jars, dried herbs, roots and spices, and the herbalist will mix you a blend for whatever ails you: thyme and eucalyptus for a chest cold, chamomile for nerves, a "ras el hanout" of warming spices for circulation. Some of the patter is theatre and you should buy modestly, but the underlying folk pharmacology is real and centuries deep.

My practical steer: do try sheeba and verbena while you’re here — they’re genuinely lovely and you’ll struggle to find them this fresh at home. Be gently sceptical of miracle-cure sales pitches in the more touristy herbalist shops, buy a small bag of dried verbena or sage to take home, and ask your riad to brew you the seasonal local herb. I can also arrange a proper herbalist or wellness visit if this is your kind of thing.