Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea)
Thick, dark Libyan tea boiled to a foam and served in small glasses topped with roasted peanuts, strong, sweet, and steeped in ritual.
Libyan · medium · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 20 min
~212 cal · 5g protein · 29g carbs · 10g fat · 2g fiber · 26g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Shahi bil ful is Libyan tea served with roasted peanuts, strong, sweet green or black tea poured over a spoonful of peanuts, a cornerstone of Libyan social life. The tea is brewed long and strong, often whipped to a foam, and served in small glasses.
Sharing tea is central to Libyan hospitality, and the ritual of brewing, sweetening, and pouring, sometimes over several rounds, is a moment of connection. The peanuts add richness and a treat to finish.
Offered to guests and enjoyed in cafés across Tripoli, Libyan tea with peanuts is strong, sweet, and taken slowly.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 tbsp loose black tea
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups water
1/3 cup roasted peanuts, to top
Instructions
1
Boil the tea with the water and sugar, then reduce and pour back and forth between pot and glass to build foam.
2
Return to the heat and boil again, repeating the pouring, until dark, syrupy, and well foamed.
3
Pour into small glasses, spooning the thick foam on top of each.
4
Scatter a few roasted peanuts over each glass and serve hot.
Tripoli tea-ritual tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tripoli. Bazin is the older dish and much the harder one. Barley flour is beaten into boiling water with a stick until it stiffens into a dome, turned out onto a platter with red sauce, eggs and lamb around it, and eaten by hand from the shared plate. The pasta, by contrast, is an Italian inheritance.
🗺️
Libya. The Libyan spice base is bzaar, built on caraway and turmeric rather than on the chilli-forward blends further west, and it is what makes a Libyan tomato sauce taste Libyan. Sharba, the soup that opens the meal in Ramadan, is finished off the heat with dried mint rubbed between the palms, which is the step that gives it away.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Libya
BazinA firm barley-flour dome served in a spiced lamb-and-tomato sauce with a hard-boiled egg.
SfinzStretchy, lacy fried dough eaten warm with honey or date syrup, a Libyan weekend breakfast.
Macaroni ImbakbakaPasta simmered in a spiced lamb-and-tomato sauce until it absorbs it all, Libya's signature everyday pasta.
Browse all Libya recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Libya meal
BazinDinner
GhraybahDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Qahwa OmaniOman
Jabana (Sudanese Spiced Coffee)Sudan
QishrYemen
Ethiopian Coffee (Buna)Ethiopia
PinolilloNicaragua
Koko SamoaSamoa
Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea)?
Thick, dark Libyan tea boiled to a foam and served in small glasses topped with roasted peanuts, strong, sweet, and steeped in ritual.
Where does Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) come from?
Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) is a Libyan dish from Tripoli, Libya.
Can Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Shahi bil Ful (Libyan Tea) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.