KUANFU TEA ART CENTER

At the northern entrance to the city, an industrial building conceals one of the capital's best-kept secrets: the Kuanfu Tea Art Center. In a huge room without an opening partitioned into several tasting areas, the ritual of the tea ceremony is performed in the purest Chinese tradition. A clear sign, the Sino-Mauritians are there to evaluate the different qualities of the leaves in the repetitive and heady notes of traditional Chinese music, a time of pause in a very different place.

The experiment begins in the upper floors of the building where the famous Kuanfu Tea completes its long and slow 365-day fermentation process using the British K26 technique consisting of 21 baking phases. This method reduces the caffeine level to less than 0.017%, increases the polyphenol level to more than 32% at the same time and gives full identity to this unique ripe black tea with multiple virtues, we are told. A guide leads the tour and explains the different manufacturing processes: from leaf collection to alternative hot and cold fermentations in machines and bags, including drying on sieves, sorting, baking... Then comes the time of tasting, preceded by the time of preparation, which, as usual, is carried out in several stages, patiently explained and visually completed by a hostess: choice of service (a small teapot with tiny cups), dosage of the tea (5 grams), heating the water to 90 °C. Three infusions are then made in order to gradually lower the heat of the water in the cups and to make the taste of the tea more homogeneous. And the hostess to present and detail the multiple qualities of this tea which improves the digestive system, reinforces sleep, has an antioxidant action... and whose powder can be used as a skin mask. According to Mauristea, the company behind the Kuanfu Tea, Mauritian lands would have excellent conditions for high quality tea production. To date, Kuanfu Tea has luxury retail outlets all over the island. The tea ceremony is systematically offered there. The prices of the packages are much higher than those of other Mauritian teas and the packaging is generally more neat.

You can also visit the other Kuanfu tea factory in Dubreuil, in the centre of the island: a vast 10,000 ^m2 complex, whose tea room is said to be the largest in the world today.