Tea with milk, a British heritage that the latter have passed on to the Mauritians.  However, after two centuries of drinking this beverage at least twice a day, consumption habits have slowly but surely changed in Mauritius.  Nowadays, infusions and the flavoured teas are all the fashion.  Tea has become a very trendy drink.   

It's highly fashionable at the moment.  With his cup of tea sitting on the table, 25 year-old Farez, a young entrepreneur, draws up today's balance sheet.  It is 6o'clock in the afternoon and he's on his twelfth cup of tea of the day.  "I enjoy varying the flavours and at the end of the day, I don't even realise that I've drunk so much teas," he blurts out, smilingly just to tell how much he appreciates this brown, smoking liquid.     

And yet, Farez was never a great tea lover until he discovered flavoured tea.  "When I was a child, my mum gave us so much tea with milk that it became a reflex to drink it rather than a pleasure, he says. Today, it's different."  Like Farez, numerous Mauritians have discovered flavoured tea.  Supermarket shelves are especially designed to enable the consumer to discover an array of flavoured teas.           

They can be found in boxes of twelve or twenty-five tea bags. There's something for everyone, from minted tea to lemon flavoured tea to cardamom tea or ginger tea.  One can also find tea that helps one's digestion and the slimming tea, which is very successful with women.  The prices are affordable and vary from Rs 35 to Rs 90.  Therefore flavoured tea is more and more accessible to Mauritian homes.        

Flavoured tea is also becoming more and more popular because it is easy to prepare.  As opposed to tea with milk, which requires a preparation time of around 10 minutes, flavoured tea is quickly prepared.  A cup of warm water...pop the tea bag in...leave it to infuse for a couple of minutes and that's it!