Bois Chéri
The tea plateau of southern Mauritius, and effectively the whole of the island's industry. The gardens sit on the cool, wet interior uplands in the Savanne district, on deeply weathered lateritic soil that sugar cane never wanted — which is precisely why tea is there. The estate runs its own factory and a visitor route, and the great majority of what it makes is flavoured with vanilla before sale. That last fact is the honest headline for the district: the leaf is competent, the vanilla is what the market buys, and describing the terroir without saying so would misrepresent the product.
Elevation
Recorded at 400–600 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. The Mauritian central plateau is modest in altitude by tea standards. It is enough to make the interior markedly cooler and wetter than the coast, which is the whole agronomic argument for growing tea there.
Climate
Tropical maritime, with the interior plateau catching substantially more rain than the leeward coast and staying several degrees cooler. There is no cold season and no dormancy; the limiting factors are cyclones in the southern summer and the poverty of the lateritic soil rather than temperature.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
Year-round plucking with no flush structure, slowing in the cooler months of the southern winter. Cyclone seasons interrupt rather than shape the calendar. Nothing here corresponds to a first flush and no premium attaches to any particular pick.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How production is organised
A single dominant estate with its own factory, plus contracted smallholders delivering green leaf. Because one operation makes almost everything, the island's tea has a company identity rather than a regional one — the name on the packet is a brand, and the district behind it is not sold separately.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Other teas recorded from here
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.