Tea culture is HUGE in Tunisia. There are dedicated tea shops here, usually called Salon de thé, where locals pop in for a couple cups. There are different varieties: traditional with mint, with nuts, just plain black. Always with sugar. Tons of sugar. Sometimes with sweets too. Or more than one. Same deal with coffee. It's basically the diabetes capital. I learned pretty quickly to order everything without sugar right away, otherwise it's impossible. Sometimes they even serve rose water with coffee. Also sweet. In a separate container so you can add it to taste. The French brought tea here at the end of the 19th century, and for the first 40 years or so, nobody really paid it much attention. But after World War I, there was an actual tea epidemic. Literally. At least according to local doctors, who actively pushed French authorities to legally restrict tea. Because it supposedly had a negative effect on Tunisians, who apparently couldn't control their tea consumption on their own. "Teaism" was actually seriously compared to alcoholism and they tried all sorts of ways to fight it. Meanwhile, in Morocco, where they were consuming significantly more tea at the same time, this wasn't seen as a problem at all. Because unlike Tunisians, they brewed green tea instead of black, did it the "right" way, didn't reuse tea leaves, and didn't over-brew. Though according to doctors, the "epidemic" eventually spread to Algeria and Morocco too. To give you a sense of the seriousness of the situation: forensic psychiatrists would actually write down "tea-induced hallucinations" or "overdid it on tea" as the cause of murders in their reports. It's even preserved in the archives (for example, here, but in French). Honestly, I'd think twice about the stuff after that too :) Anyway, after independence from the French, the tea epidemic kind of died down. Well, almost died down.