Of Kingdoms And Kindness

Creative polymath Waris Ahluwalia unveils his latest projects—a line of teas that soothes the body and soul, and a new botanicals bar in New York—and shares why slowing down is the fastest way to good health.

- Coco Marett

It’s hard to keep up with a man who does it all. Waris Ahluwalia is many things—actor, activist, designer of clothing, fine jewellery and ceramics—but, at the end of the day, he’s a storyteller. And his latest tale is House of Waris Botanicals, a collection of teas and elixirs. “Tea has been connecting people for centuries. In every indigenous culture across the planet, tea has always served a purpose. It was a way to bond and a way to heal,” says Ahluwalia. We’re at his office in New York’s Lower East Side, and I’m sipping one of his blends from a rustic steel cup—it’s a mix of turmeric, black pepper, rooibos, ginger, honeybush, cinnamon and bee pollen, and it feels like a hug from the inside.

House of Waris has been producing tea since 2010, but after spending the past few years working with herbalists, sourcing teas and unearthing ancient customs in places like Tamil Nadu in India, Ahluwalia saw an opportunity to dig deeper.

“I thought, wait a minute, why am I doing Earl Grey? That just puts me in the line of every other tea company, where I’m just in marketing and sourcing. So instead, we’re creating blends that give us the chance to be better—that address some very human needs: love, sleep, immunity, digestion, detox, clarity and beauty. I could personally use help in all of those,” explains Ahluwalia, adding that it took his own falling apart for this new path to fall into place.

In 2013, after years of collaborating with coveted fashion brands, including A.P.C., Kenzo and The Kooples, showing at New York Fashion Week and designing for his fine jewellery label, House of Waris, he hit a wall in what he describes as a ‘philosophical disconnect’.