What is a typical Moroccan café order?

When you sit down at a Moroccan café, knowing what to ask for instantly makes you feel less like a tourist. The single most popular order — and the one I tell every client to learn — is the nous-nous, which means "half-half": roughly equal parts espresso and steamed milk, served in a glass. It’s the perfect middle ground between a harsh espresso and a milky latte, and ordering one correctly always earns a small nod of approval from the waiter.

After that, the menu is simple. A café noir is a straight espresso; a café cassé is an espresso "broken" with just a splash of milk; a café au lait is the milkier French-style coffee. On the tea side, the default is a sweet mint tea (atay), which arrives loaded with sugar — if you want it less sweet, say "shwiya sukar" (a little sugar) when you order, because by default it’s very sweet. Fresh orange juice (‘asir limoun) is the other near-universal order.

The mechanics are different from home and worth knowing. You sit first, then a waiter comes to you — you don’t queue at a counter. You’re left completely alone afterward; no one brings the bill until you catch the waiter’s eye and ask ("l’hsab, afak"). You pay at the end, in cash, and leave a couple of dirhams on the saucer as a tip. There’s no pressure to drink up and leave — the table is yours for as long as you want it.

A few small cultural notes I always pass on: cafés are cash-only the vast majority of the time, so keep coins and small notes handy. In traditional street cafés the clientele skews male, so women travellers may prefer the modern cafés in the new-city districts. And if you find a café you like, go back — becoming "the regular" even for three days, and being greeted by name, is one of the quiet joys of travelling in Morocco.