Tea and sugar have a tyrannical and almost obsessive centrality in Morocco. Its preparation and consumption are daily rituals of generosity and exchange, but it is also economically a heavy load to bear. Who pays for how much of the tea and sugar, who owes whom from the other day or last week, and the quality of the ingredients are all constant themes of everyday life. (...) One gets the impression that tea must be one of the oldest and most stable of Moroccan staples, but this is not the case. (...) Actually, tea was introduced into Morocco by the English in the eighteenth century, and it's use did not become widespread until the nineteenth."
Paul Rabinow, Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco, University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2007, p. 35.