The New Brew Masters

White, green, black, Oolong or the orthodox variant– tea is much more than a few leaves in warm water. At least, six hundred varieties of tea are cultivated in India alone. However, with coffee bars mushrooming across the country, the Indian ‘chai’ culture has lost its sanctity. Realizing this gap, a number start-ups such as Chai Point, Chaayos, Chai break, Teabox, Tpot Café and others are hitting the ground to replace the ‘tapris’ with chic chai bars.

- Sugandh Bahl

“My mother taught me to make tea when I was very young. And ever since, I have always been particular about it,” says Nitin Saluja, Founder, Chaayos. An initiative by two techies Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma, Chaayos (started in 2012) is catering to the segment of ‘meri wali chai’. While conducting their research, they found out that every Indian has their own set of preferences when it comes to the perfect cup of tea, ranging from ‘adrak wali chai’ to ‘kaadi hui chai” Their tagline ‘Experimenting with chai’ is simply a proclamation of their menu with offerings like ‘aam papad chai’ or the ‘rose cardamom chai’. “The tea based beverage business is a very large and is mostly untapped in any organized form. The ritual of chai lends itself to a high degree of habitual consumption, and unlike other food products, with little onset of product fatigue,” says Kiranbir Nag, Partner, Saama Capital.

SIPPING DOWN MEMORY LANE