Mauritius

Mauritius

Today we travel to the  small island of volcanic origin, Mauritius  which is 500 miles (800 km) east of Madagascar. Mauritius is the home of the dodo bird. Apparently there are several other species of birds unique to the island that nearly went extinct before people realized that they really should protect them. 

I also noticed that the age distribution of this country is more balanced. Upon further reading, they offer free basic healthcare services to their population, and have compulsory education for everyone between age 5 and 16. This is starting to sound like a really nice place to live. I was also amused to read that English was the official language of the country, but few people actually spoke it. Over half of the land on this island is arable, and most of it is planted with sugar cane for export. They also use some of their land to grow vegetables and tea for local consumption. While I know sugar makes good money, I'm more interested in the local crops. 

I found a couple of different videos about how to make tea in Mauritius. One was of a girl making tea. It was simple black tea with sugar, and she used hot water to stir up coffee mate powder to be the "milk" for her tea. While I'm a bit skeptical of non-dairy "cream" made from stuff you find in a chemistry lab, I have a feeling that it would taste a bit better than the canned milk we've tried before.

The video I decided to follow to make my tea is a little more grown up in tastes. Today we venture into the vanilla teas. I've found reference to several countries in East Africa growing vanilla, so why not put it in the tea? The tea leaves the woman in the video used were already vanilla flavored, and as luck would have it, I have vanilla tea in my cupboard. So sit back and watch some sèga dancers while we make some tea.

I decided to make a small batch. I used a generous cup of water (a little over 250 ml) and brought it to a boil with a cracked cardamom pod. Then I simmered a tea bag for 5 minutes, and added milk (you can add sugar if you want to). 
The nice thing about using a tea bag is there is no straining involved. I used a spoon to take the cardamom pod out, and it was ready to go. Fragrant vanilla with cardamom, and smooth, creamy milk. One more reason to love Mauritius. 

Comments

  1. Poppy CrockerDecember 17, 2017 at 7:41 AM

    Yay for something good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lace makerDecember 17, 2017 at 8:38 AM

      Somehow I don't think that you are referring to the tea as good ;) this does sound like a really nice place to visit/live.

      Delete

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