Destination: Spain : Starbucks, Granada-Style : Tea is the drink of the day in this southern city of Moorish heritage

It is late afternoon and the students are huddled over the miniature wooden table, sipping hot liquid mixed with milk and sugar. They chat about the weather while notebooks and textbooks lie idle on the floor next to them. A shiny silver urn sits like a centerpiece in the middle of the table, and is tapped continually until it gives no more of its caffeine-filled nectar.

A Seattle coffeehouse? Not a chance. This is one of the in spots of Granada’s teahouse scene that, over the last several years, has become as distinct to southern Spain as Starbucks is to Southern California. Already catering to a caffeine-starved student population, teahouses are fast becoming a staple of the professional and tourist crowd.

But make no mistake--with the exception of the clientele, Spain’s teahouses, or teterias, have almost nothing in common with America’s coffeehouse chains.

Small (in some cases tiny) tearooms offer an intoxicating amalgam, serving dozens of flavorful teas from around the world in an atmosphere steeped in centuries-old history, art and architecture. The atmosphere lures even the most discerning tea lover back to the 15th century, when Spain’s world explorations were at a peak and the Moors held dominion over the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Although teterias can be found across southern Spain from Seville to Barcelona, I discovered them while visiting a friend at the Universidad de Granada. Like many American students in this ancient and once wealthy and powerful city in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, she had become a turncoat. Succumbing to the urging of her Spanish roommates, she cast aside her coffee addiction and pledged her allegiance (at least for part of her visit) to Spanish tea. She became a regular at the teterias.

Scarcely two blocks north of the Gran Via De Colon, Granada’s main street, in a section of the city called the Albaicin, I found myself nearly lost in a maze of narrow, cobblestone streets, and most have at least one teteria. Calle de Caldereria Nueva has six on one block, all working to lure tea lovers into dark dens filled with colorful pillows, a strong scent of incense, candles, sitar and lute melodies and, of course, the sweet smell of tea imported from as far away as Southeast Asia and South America.

*

The tradition is as old as the Moorish invasion of the 8th century. Along with their Muslim-influenced art and mosque-like architecture, the North African conquerors brought with them the tradition of the teahouse as a gathering place for the men of the village.

It was in such dark dens that men could smoke, drink rich tea from Pakistan or China and discuss the politics of the day. Little has changed--except for the exclusion of women--in the small Arabic enclave of the Albaicin.

Enter each den through Arabic archways ornately decorated with hexagonal and octagonal mosaic designs and inscriptions. For an instant I felt as though I had walked onto the set of an Indiana Jones movie.

At Teteria Marrakesh on Caldereria Vieja, private alcoves bathed in soft green and red light and shrouded with veils of sheer silk and purple cloth are available for romantic or discreet conversation. More common are slightly larger rooms--such as those at Teteria Azahara--that are filled with miniature stools, benches and tables. The same red and green light, covered in copper lamp shades, throws shadows of Arabic design on decorated walls. Upon closer inspection, you can discern that some of the walls are covered in tiny tiles of reds, browns, blues and black in intricate mosaics.

At Teteria Azahara, just down the street from Teteria Marrakesh, I watched as a party of 15 was seated in a loft so close to the ceiling that standing was impossible. Servers and tea drinkers alike were forced to crawl on hands and knees from the near-vertical wood staircase to piles of pillows surrounding a very short, rectangular wood table. They sat cross-legged while they sipped tea, illuminated by shards of the setting sun streaming through the loft’s stained-glass windows.

Students took over the teterias most afternoons, filling the time with gossip, people-watching and conversation.

Finding an empty table in a teteria is sometimes difficult, especially if you arrive just after the afternoon siesta, the most popular time for tea. At the perennially crowded Teteria Azahara, three Spanish companions and I were lucky to find a place just under the loft.

“I love these places!” said Esther Gonzalez Olmo, 20, who had trekked in from her university in Puertollano, a small city in the center of Spain, for La Dia de Las Cruces, a springtime religious festival in which squares in the city are marked by hundreds of flower-covered crosses. Local legend has it that La Dia is also the day St. Helena found a piece of the cross on which Christ was crucified.

The menu, in Spanish, read like a world atlas: Japoneses, Chinos, Ingleses, Arabes, in addition to any number of plant, fruit and flower teas. Teas prepared with milk (con leche) or with sugar (con azucar) are also favorites of the locals. Teteria Kasbah, even farther down the street from Azahara, serves afrodisiacos, teas rumored to enhance the sex drive.

The teas at most of the teterias are served in miniature silver teapots imported from Morocco and decorated with Arabic inscriptions. Patrons drink out of minuscule porcelain or glass teacups.

The teas are heavenly. Served strong with bits of tea leaves that slip through the mesh tea balls, the bitter bite of Chai, a Pakistani tea (spelled Shai on Spanish tea menus), is only cut by three teaspoons of sugar, milk and a hint of mint. The kiwi tea is bettered only by the chamomile; the English breakfast tea is great any time of the day.

And the price is right for most students and tourists. Most teas cost about $2.75 for a small pot, which is enough for two. Larger pots cost up to $4-$4.50, but can yield up to five cups.

Pastries baked in local pastelerias and served at many of the teterias run from about $1.30 and up for sweet cookies and breads with almonds and other nuts. For patrons hungry after the afternoon siesta, hot sandwiches made with ham and cheese (jamon y queso) are served for $1.75 and cre^pes served with chocolate, nuts and strawberries and other fruits cost about $2.25 at Teteria Kasbah.

“It’s really the place to go,” said 21-year-old Jeff Louden, an American student from Eagle Rock, Calif., who made a weekly (and sometimes twice weekly) pilgrimage to Teteria Kasbah. “It’s a social thing. I’m hooked. Everything is all natural with incredible flavor, not processed like in the United States.”

In his T-shirt covered with a loose-fitting, patterned shirt and jeans, Louden fit in with most of the students from the Universidad de Granada and the Facultad de Ciencias, the local math and science university. The students took over the teterias most afternoons, filling the time between the midday siesta and a late dinner with conversation, people-watching and gossiping.

“It’s the same concept as the coffeehouses in America, but in America it’s about the scene and going to the scene; in Granada it’s about relaxing,” said Louden, adding that some of the teterias he searched for were rumored to be hidden in the caves of the hills surrounding the Albaicin. “The influence of North Africa was the best thing to happen to southern Spain.”

Locals and teteria owners say the teahouse craze has been fueled by two major factors: the history and diversity of the Albaicin, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Granada, and the demands of a growing student and tourist population.

*

Nestled in the shadow of the spectacular Alhambra--the 13th century castle of reddish brick built by the Moors for protection from Christian armies that were attempting to evict them--the Albaicin was once home to Moorish nobles who were finally driven out by the Christians in 1492. It has since been termed by some locals as a “ghetto,” where nobles have been replaced by Gypsies, artisans and North African immigrants.

But those immigrants have kept some of the teterias in business for decades and are helping to meet the demand of the current teteria craze. One new teteria owner, Belkhir Khalil, said the student and tourist demand is so high that there aren’t enough teterias to satisfy the public.

An immigrant from Algeria, Khalil, 20, used to hawk shirts, earrings and souvenirs near Granada’s Grand Cathedral before borrowing family money to open Teteria Marrakesh.

“Competition is stiff,” he said, but a growing stream of students and tourists up and down the streets of the Albaicin lead him to believe he has made a wise investment. Catering to a younger crowd, he says, will ensure that his teteria will flourish. To that end, he has started mixing popular folk music with sitar and lute melodies, hoping to catch his peers, the twentysomethings, as they pass by.

For Khalil, Starbucks is only a word from half a world away. Prosperity in Spain, he says, lies in the teterias. “Business is working very, very well,” he said. And the way it’s going, it will only get better.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GUIDEBOOK

Tea for Two in Granada

Getting there: From LAX, American, British Air, Continental, Delta, KLM, Iberia, Northwest, TWA and United offer connecting service to Madrid. Lowest advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $815. From Madrid to Granada, Aviaco flies nonstop. Round-trip fares start at about $130. There is also daily train service between Madrid and Granada; round-trip fares start at about $90.

Finding teahouses: To visit the teterias in Granada, walk about two short blocks north from the Grand Cathedral across the Gran Via De Colon to either Calle Cetti Herien or Calle Carcel. Continue north on either block up the hill toward the Albaicin. Just past Calle Elvira, Carcel becomes Caldereria Nueva. When Cetti Herien ends, turn left at Caldereria Vieja. Caldereria Vieja and Caldereria meet one block away at Plaza de Gato.

Teteria Marrakesh is at Caldereria Vieja, No. 4. Teteria Azahara and Kasbah are about one block away on the right side of Caldereria Nueva as you walk toward the Alhambra, between Calles Elvira and Caldereria Vieja.

For more information: Tourist Office of Spain, 8383 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 956, Beverly Hills 90211; tel. (213) 658-7188; fax (213) 658-1061.

--J.G.