This is an AI-generated image.

Shai bil Kakawiya

Name: Shai bil Kakawiya
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Libya
Ingredients: 2 tbsp Black tea leaves; 500ml Water; 4 tbsp Sugar; 40g (unsalted) Peanuts

Dessert

⏱ 15 min

👥 Serves 4

Difficulty ⭐

Strong, frothy black tea with roasted peanuts floating on top — Libya's tea.

📱 Open in Storage App

🚧 The Storage app is currently in development. Please check back soon.

📖 The Story Behind This Dish

In Libya, pouring tea repeatedly from a height to make it frothy and drinking it from small glasses is the etiquette of hospitality. Shai bil kakawiya — strong sweet tea with roasted peanuts floating in it — is a uniquely Libyan style, the toasty nuts pairing well with the sweet tea. Some versions use mint or almonds.

🌆 Where it's eaten: In a Libyan living room, a man holds a small pot high and pours tea to froth it, roasted peanuts floating in the glasses.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 4)

Black tea leaves 2 tbsp
Water 500ml
Sugar 4 tbsp
Peanuts 40g (unsalted)

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Toast the peanuts in a frying pan until fragrant.
Bring the water and tea leaves to a boil in a small pan and simmer on low for 5 minutes.
Add the sugar and dissolve.
Pour back and forth from a height between glass and pot several times to build froth.
Pour into glasses and float the peanuts on top.

← More Libya recipes 🗺 Explore another country