Arabic coffee is strong, dark and sipped from tiny cups. It is drunk in most Arabic countries (although in North Africa tea is also very popular). Whereas in some countries it may be drunk plain and sweet, in Kuwait it is flavoured with cardamom and should never be drunk with sugar.

Each Arabic country has its own rituals concerning coffee and this descriptive article from The Kuwait Times writes about the Kuwaiti traditions of drinking Arabic coffee.

Maybe the most important tradition to know about as a visitor to Kuwait is that finishing your cup and handing it back to your host means that it will always be refilled. To show that you don’t want more you should shake the cup before giving it back. Useful to know if you want to be able to sleep!

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About the author

Lucy is English and first ventured out of the UK she was 19. Since then she has lived in 4 different countries and tried to see as much of the world as possible. She loves learning languages, learning about different cultures and hearing different points of view.