Indian Chai

By Aniruddh Jahagirdar

Even the greatest interactions begin with the offer of having a cup of tea. It’s not just a cup of chai with which we start a good day, but it’s an indivisible part of our life. We offer tea as a token of hospitality. Be the season summer, winter, rainy or spring, cups of hot tea are a must in service to guests in households across the country. Many Indians associate rail travel with the cries of "chai, chai," from tea sellers carrying kettles along trains and platforms. The sellers even memorise the local timetable of trains. All roadsides have at least one heavenly place, the tea stall that begin the mornings of crores with great refreshment. Being consumed 837,000 tonnes of it by India every year, tea has evolved to be the most popular Indian drink.

The story of tea begins in China. In 2737 BC, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting under a tree while his servant boiled drinking water, when some leaves from the tree blew into the water. Shen Nung, decided to try the infusion that his servant had accidentally created. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, and the resulting drink was what we now call tea.

In the past few years, there has been a massive development in Tea industry leading to the Benchmarks being set in the Indian history of ‘chai’. Here are some Indian Tea Startups Who Are adding new flavours along with the traditional essence of Desi Chai. One of them is MBA Chaiwala which was started by Prafull Billore as a roadside tea stall from selling tea at political parties to naming the tea after programmes initiated by the parties, the start-up made its own path and by the end of 2019-20, it stood out at Rs. 3 Crore as its turnover. Chai Point which originated in Bangalore, is considered to be the first chai start-up of India. Owned by a Harvard alumni, it is also the first company to deliver hot chai to doorsteps. Amuleek’s business has gone from 88 crore in 2018 to 190 crore mark in 2020.

There’s no point in escaping from the fact that chai has a ubiquitous presence in their lives. Each cup of it represents an imaginary voyage. There's something in nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life. With a cup of Chai in hand, everything becomes better.

By Aniruddh Jahagirdar