Maison NANA1807 | Interview France Bleu
Aug 26, 2024
This press article highlights the world and vision of Maison NANA1807 around mint tea. It reflects an outside perspective on our cultural and artisanal approach.
To discover our expert selection dedicated to the best mint tea, visit our dedicated page.
NANA1807 House Blends Exceptional Mint Teas
It's quite unusual, but did you know that the most expensive mint tea on the market is made in Berry? The company Nana1807 was founded in 2020 in Lunery, in the village of Rosières. It now offers 12 different mint tea blends.
Zakaria Nana and his company Nana 1807 now offer twelve mint tea recipes © Radio France - Michel Benoit
Nana 1807 is the only company in the world specializing in mint tea . The idea came from Zakaria Nana. This former sales engineer, who traveled the world for 30 years, spent his entire childhood in Lunery, in the Cher region, where his Moroccan parents settled in 1968. It was in the family home that he set up his workshop.
It takes several months to validate a new tea recipe © Radio France - Michel Benoit
Nana 1807 occupies a niche market. It all started with a recipe in homage to Zakaria Nana's mother : "We created Mouima tea," explains Zakaria emotionally. "Mouima is what my children called their grandmother, who passed away in 2015. It means 'my beloved mother.' She made us a wonderful mint tea, and one day I told her I would market it all over the world. So I kept my word. It took several months of work to recreate the taste of her tea. She made it with peppermint from our garden, and we drink it without sugar. We opened the workshop in March 2020."
Zakaria's mother and her children, just before their departure from Morocco to Lunery, in Berry, in 1968 © Radio France - Michel Benoit
600 varieties of mint
The tea, mint, and associated fruits or herbs are organic, or even biodynamic. This justifies the price, the highest on the market. Invitations to travel, from Cape Town to the Garden of Eden, with twelve very diverse recipes. To solidify its reputation, the brand created the concept of Mintéalogie, the oenology of mint tea: " There is little written about the ritual, the ceremony of Moroccan tea," continues Zakaria Nana. "So we are going to do research to try to decipher the history of mint tea, the science surrounding mint botany, and also the benefits of mint tea. This goes far beyond the sometimes folkloric ritual of holding the teapot high to pour the tea. It's a much more technical gesture than it seems. Did you know that there are at least 600 varieties of mint?"
Visitors to the Nana 1807 workshops are invited to the tea ceremony, of course. © Radio France - Michel Benoit
Nana 1807 also organized a Mintealogy seminar in Cambridge last May for businesses. The company partnered with the Rallye des Gazelles and offers workshops for the general public, notably with Galeries Lafayette department stores. This represents a rather high-end positioning in the highly competitive tea market. A small portion of the mint used is now grown in Berry, in Farges-Allichamps.
Maison NANA1807 opens its workshops to you as part of the secret visits, on 27/08 and 10/09 (registration on the Berry Province website).