Kuanfu Tea, Mauritius by Obelix

Trying to overcome extreme boredom during my long haul flight to Mauritius, I had poured over their in-flight magazine. I came across an intriguing ad for Kuanfu tea. It was billed as a product of Mauritius replete with dodo bird branding. It was organic and due to a specialised production process, each batch had been fermented for a year.

 

Dodo tea cup and Kuanfu tea in the background

Being a tea enthusiast and lover of all things naturally fermented, I was hooked. The purported benefits being - a digestive aid and a sleep aid. Ding, ding, ding!!! It ticked all the right boxes! I was slightly dyspeptic from my over indulgence during my layover in Perth (my epic dinner at the Epicurean) and weary from travel. It came to me at the right moment in time.

P organised for me to experience the tea ceremony at Kuanfu tea house in Grand Baie.

The brewing process was new to me. There was barely any steeping time (2-3 seconds!) and the tea was then drained into a larger receptacle. This process was repeated two more times with the same tea leaves until there was enough for P, Kiddo and I to have our fill.

We sampled the A-grade tea leaves harvested from the young shoots aka the expensive leaves. There was the lesser grade one with larger leaves mixed through. Due to fineness of the younger leaves, a tea filter rather than a standard tea pot was used.

So how did it taste? It was a black tea but without the bitterness. It had the sweetness or rather clearness on the palate of a rooibos or a very light green tea. It purported to have a high percentage of polyphenols (32.5%) and very low in caffeine (0.017%) hence its reputation as a digestive and sleep aid.

Overall

The A-grade leaves were not cheap. With conversion to Australian dollars it worked out to be around $50 for 100g. Then there was the tea filter to purchase on top of that. But if it does what it claims to do, then I believe it's worth it as high quality nutritional supplements would be comparably priced.

Find it at

Kuanfu Tea
Promenade des Artistes
Grand Baie, Mauritius
Phone: +230 269 6898