House of 900 Spices

Every day in Marrakech we walked past the same shop on our way to and from our riad, and every day the same group of guys sitting out front asked us to come take a look. We didn’t say yes until our last day and I wish it had been sooner! When we stepped inside we were both instantly amazed. Without knowing, we had entered the most beautiful naturopathic shop I’ve ever seen.

In Morocco, these shops are known by tourists as Berber Pharmacies or Maisons des epices (Spice Houses). The one we visited is called “Dar Al Atrya”, located in the center of Marrakech’s Medina. As we stepped inside we were immediately amazed by the endless rows of shelves filled with jar after jar of Moroccan herbs, spices, dyes, oils, teas and much more.

After entering the shop, we were lead through a beautiful 17th century carved wooden doorway into a roomed lined with wooden benches covered in fresh white cushions. In front of the benches was a coffee table with large bowls filled with multiple Moroccan teas, sweet scents floating towards us. At the center of the room stood a tall table covered in countless bottles and jars of intriguing unknown substances. It was such an interesting place, there was something new to look at everywhere.

We were then greeted by a guy name Mostafa, who is only in his early 20s, has already finished studying all there is to know about Moroccan herbology (which I assume is a lot!), and plans to move to Boston to teach Arabic. While we admired the beauty of the shop, Mostafa began to reveal the names of all the interesting looking herbs, spices, teas, and oils scattered across the table in front of us.

Dar Al Atrya had a cure for every ailment, something to swallow, breathe, rub on, or wash in. Stress, insomnia, migraines, congestion, they had it all and we tried it. We smelled the herbs to cure these ailments. We smelled spices for cooking, including the one used for Moroccan tagine, which is actually made up of about 35 different spices. We smelled teas, perfumes, soaps, creams and many other things that I can’t even remember. Every scent was delicious, my nose was very happy! We rubbed argan oil and other things on our skin. We looked at natural cosmetic products like lipstick that came in mini tagine dishes. The products they had were endless.

Everything in the shop was natural and came from within Morocco. A store like this would be so successful in a city like Toronto, for urbanites who want to use natural, organic products to beautify themselves and to cure their aches and pains.

One of the first things that Mostafa showed us was nigella stativa seeds. The seeds are a natural anti-inflammatory and are perfect for fighting stuffy noses, soar throats, and unbearable snoring. We learned that a few tiny black seeds wrapped in a thin piece of fabric and inhaled after a quick rub on your palm immediately clears your respiratory system. Don’t worry, I bought enough to share a little bit with anyone with a significant other that snores!

I couldn’t resist the argan oil. Moroccans use it for everything: face, hair, body, anti-wrinkle, anti-acne, hair serum, moisturizer. Argan oil is pressed from the nut of the fruit coming from the argan tree, which only grows in Morocco. Argan trees live 150 to 200 years and don’t start producing fruit until they are 30 to 50 years old. It takes a lot of work to produce argan oil and a job that’s often done by women, so it can be fairly expensive. Argan oil bought in Morocco is much less expensive, not to mention more pure, than what we find in salons at home. Mostafa told us that pure argan oil (the kind you want), should still contain some resin from the nuts, and it shouldn’t be greasy, oily, or thick, but rather thin and light. You can see some of the tools used to crush the nuts and drain the oil on the floor in the picture below.

After 5 or 6 years of using argan oil on my hair, I can honestly say that this is the best I’ve ever bought. A dime-size amount makes the ends smooth and shiny, and they don’t get greasy even if I accidentally use too much. But, I have to say that I prefer using it even more on my skin. I use a pea-size amount around the bottom of my eyes and across my lid before bed. It feels like rubbing a tiny silk pillow against my face! And it absorbs almost instantly so my face isn’t left feeling greasy.

Enough about argan oil! We also bought a few different kinds of tea. The one in the picture below is for anti-stress and relaxation. It is beyond the best tea I’ve ever had, it’s taste and texture was so smooth that it left us relaxed after the first sip.

On top of all these precious products, Dar Al Atrya had the most beautiful table I’ve ever seen. One day (inchallah), I want to go back to Marrakech just to buy this table. Inlayed with many different kinds of coloured wood, the table mirrored the detailed geometric themes so common in Moroccan architecture. What was even cooler though, was that the table opened up, on the other side of the table-top was a chess board, and inside was a backgammon board. The table-top could also be folded in half to become a thin console, perfect for the entrance-way of my future house hahah.

A visit to a Berber pharmacy in Morocco goes beyond your average shopping experience. It’s a true cultural adventure: it offers a window into the ancient world of Berber remedies and apothecary. Berber people have honed their herbal healing methods for centuries and Moroccans swear by these cures even though modern medicine is widely available. After learning about some of the products at Dar Al Atrya and bringing a few home to try, I have to say that I agree!

Thanks Mostafa for enlightening us on all the shop has to offer!