Mangoes in MZ

Today’s brew: Safari Sun Tea

Once upon a summer working as a camp counselor, I met my husband. It’s really the dream, I know, to spend a summer falling in love while barely doing laundry (partially because I didn’t know how, and partially because I shared the laundry cabin with 35 other people), and always smelling like campfire. I was still learning about tea, so he would impress me by bringing me a jar of peach flavored organic ice tea.

I will skip ahead, to us deciding to have an adventure together after our wedding by moving to Mozambique to be short-term missions interns. All together we were in Africa for about 6 months, and spent the majority of it in a remote village without all of life’s normalcy. We were working and learning at a co-op created to promote small gardening, medicinal herbs, rocket stoves, compost latrines, heifer (small animal business) projects, and conversations about Jesus. The team had spent almost a decade turning dirt into soil, with giant eucalyptus trees, moringa, mango, lemongrass, passion fruit, banana, and all kinds of vegetables thriving through the rainy season.

I learned a lot about what the saying ‘it takes a village’ means. When you are in a village, life is interconnected, and multigenerational families share in raising kids, farming, cooking, and commerce.

One of my favorite lessons was in how tea is medicine. Mango leaves were boiled for fevers. Moringa powder was added for nutrients. Medicinal teas were consumed by the liter, and did not taste good. With the cultural and diet changes, there were many times I didn’t feel my best and found myself in the garden picking different leaves, lemongrass, and herbs to boil.

On better days, I would set out a jar with black tea I bought at the market, and let it brew in the sun. At first there were several questions in the community about why the jar in the sun. Apparently they also made sun tea on occasion but it looked different.

A few weeks before we left Mozambique we saw a giant box of yellow mangoes for sale, because they were perfectly ripe and wouldn’t last long. If you don’t know, yellow mangoes are much sweeter, have a smaller pit, and are a very prized variety. We bought the giant box, and together with some friends cut all of the mangoes into slices. I was probably the slowest mango slicer, but I did contribute. I took all the slices to the solar dehydrator, and once they weren’t so sticky I put them in giant bags. There is a chance I made it through customs more than once with all the dried mangoes, and enjoyed them for months back in the US!

Though Swahili is not a common language in Mozambique, Safari means ‘journey’ in Swahili, and seemed like the perfect name for a tea that reminds me of quite a journey.

The smell of lemongrass always takes me back to a rainy day in Mozambique. Part of our time there we spent trying to dream up what was next, and wondering how that part of our story would shape us. While we were there we cycled between overwhelm, sickness, joy, gratitude, connection, and ease. So… all the things. We couldn’t forecast all the way to today, but here we are seeing the seeds planted in us so long ago beginning to sprout.

Our time in Mozambique inspires us to know it is possible to turn dirt into soil, and reminds us to add curry spice to our beans. When I wanted a tea to capture all of this inspiration, Safari Sun Tea was born. Dried Mangoes, Lemongrass, Black Tea, and then a little elderberries and licorice root to balance the flavors. I love the way our senses can capture moments in time and give us a nudge. Sometimes it’s a simple reminder to be present.