Moment · Mauritius
Bois Chéri Tea Estate: Plantation Walks and Tasting in Mauritius
Swap the coast for the cool southern highlands and Mauritius's oldest tea estate, from the fields and factory to a lakeside tasting.
Another Mauritius
Up in the southern highlands, Mauritius feels like another island. It’s cooler and calmer, and the tea blanketing the slopes looks especially serene at dawn. Tea has been cultivated at Bois Chéri since 1892, making it the island’s oldest and largest plantation, and a visit is less a detour than one of the most thoughtful ways to understand the place, easy for a couple or friends taking a day off the beach.
Among the Tea Fields
The plantation sprawls across the highland country near Grand Bassin, its fields rolling away toward a distant sea in views you’ll want to pause over. It’s often likened to India’s tea country, and with reason: the terracing, the morning mist that hangs about in cooler weather and the size of the operation give it a presence the northern beach resorts don’t prepare you for. Walking the fields, especially in the harvest season from July, is the right way to begin.
Inside the Working Factory
The guided tour traces every stage: freshly picked leaf wilting in the withering hall, then fermenting and being sifted, then dried into green and black tea. Production here is real, not staged, and it’s fascinating. The museum alongside tells the story of tea growing on the island and places Bois Chéri within the wider history of Mauritian farming. Tours run in English and French and take about an hour, without feeling hurried.
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Request a quote →Tasting Above the Lake
Perched over a lake among forest and tea, Le Chalet de Bois Chéri is the natural end to the morning. Here you sample the plantation’s black teas and its flavored blends, vanilla, coconut and bergamot among them, in an unhurried setting that rewards lingering, with terrace views over the lake and hills among the loveliest anywhere in southern Mauritius. It’s an uncomplicated pleasure, beautifully done.
Lunch at the Domaine
At the estate’s restaurant, Le Domaine de Bois Chéri, Mauritian cooking borrows from the island’s many culinary heritages and slips tea into dishes with a light touch, never as a novelty. Lingering over lunch after the factory and tasting rounds off the day perfectly, with plantations on every side and the southern coast in the distance. Your Out Of Office LGBTQ+ travel specialist can arrange the day from your resort, and our Mauritius guide covers LGBTQ+ rights and travel advice.
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