Taj Mahal Tea Earns a Place in Guinness Record Book
Another interesting piece of news comes from Taj Mahal Tea. Continuing with the brand’s association with Hindustani music, the brand put up a billboard in Vijayawada, in south India, a city chosen to be an important Tata Tea market. With the monsoon in full swing, the billboard doubles as a santoor, a string instrument. When it rains, water fills the scooped pegs that sound the notes, producing a tune known as the Raag Megh Malhar, a song of the rains. The brand made it to the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest innovative installation to interact with the environment.
New Start-up Seeks to Plant Tea for Social Good
From Manipur, a state in northeast India, comes news about a startup called Meckley Tea India. The company, started by Milan Koibam, has embarked on a business to promote tea tourism in the state. Manipur borders Assam state, so tea is not a farfetched idea. Earlier this year, the state was in the news due to ethnic violence between two groups, the Meitei and the Kuki. Keeping this aside, Manipur has great natural beauty, although poppy cultivation has been a socioeconomic problem for a long time now. Meckley Tea now hopes to replace poppy – cultivated on 7,500 hectares – with tea cultivation to provide employment and also improve the state’s GDP.
Indian tea export destinations have expanded to include Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey.
Export Markets Expand
Even as the industry reports a nearly 10% decrease in tea exports this year, brought about by the loss of the Iran market, the war in West Asia, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, there has been good news. India now sees three new markets in Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey, replacing their traditional source, Sri Lanka. The work to develop these markets has been ongoing for a while. In 2021, the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce invited India to participate in the country’s first-ever tea festival. In 2022, Indian tea exports to Turkey were valued at $7.36 million, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. As for Jordan, over the past four years, there has been substantial growth in Jordan’s exports to India, especially with phosphates and potash, while imports from India include coffee, tea, spices, sugar, grains, meat, and fish.
New Association of Auctioneers
Auctioneers across India have decided to collectivize as the Association of Tea Auctioneers. With 40% of the Indian tea production sold via auctions, it seems that auctioneers felt the need to unite to promote and safeguard their rights and interests. Thirteen auctioneers have come forward to form the ATA, launched on November 10th with a ceremonial manual auction at the famed Nilhat House in Kolkata. 795 lots of orthodox Assam tea was on offer with Gaurav Ghosh, Vice Chairman of J Thomas and Co., as the auctioneer for the day. Buyers were almost all exporters, and the auction took place over 6 hours. Bringing back the manual auction for a day was also to celebrate how auctions used to take place before the industry transitioned to e-auctions. The ATA has proposed to design and operate a new auction system if the government approves.
Folk Tea Festival
Journalist Mrinal Talukdar is set to host the 3rd Folk Tea Festival in Assam this month. Spread over three days, the festival takes place at the Hatipoti Tea Estate near North Bank, Assam. It’s organized in a small tea garden and is a festival promoting folk music, local culture, and tea. This year, the festival is scheduled for November 24th to 26th. Those interested can book via the website Folktea.In where the schedule, accommodation options, and events are listed.
Yangdup Lama is India’s most famous bartender. He owns and runs Sidecar in New Delhi (#26 World’s 50 Best Bars 2022, #14 Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2022, and #1 India’s 30 Best Bars 2022). Under the brand Cocktails & Dreams, he runs Speakeasy in Gurgaon, a bar service and beverage consultancy, and a bartending school. He has authored Cocktails & Dreams: The Ultimate Indian Cocktail Book. He’s been a TEDx speaker, CNBC Young Turks, recognized by Drinks International as the Bar World’s most influential people in the beverage industry, and winner of several awards, including Indian Bartender of the Year 1996 and Asia-Pacific 30 under 30 in 1997. He mentors and consults for several top beverage brands. For us, though, he’s a Darjeeling guy, born and raised in Darjeeling. He has bridged his two worlds in recent years via his tea cocktails. Here, we catch up with him for a chat on Darjeeling, tea, bartending, and what a cocktail named Darjeeling would be like.
Aravinda Anatharaman talks with Yandup Lama, India’s most famous bartenderSidecar, New Delhi owner Yangdup Lama
Darjeeling Native a Cocktail Master
By Aravinda Anantharaman
Thank you for joining us at Tea Biz. It’s really nice to have you here. And I really look forward to this conversation with you on Darjeeling, tea, and the whole story of “The Boy from Chai Land Becomes a Cocktail Master.” But first, a quick question for you: first flush or second flush, what’s your favorite Darjeeling?
Yangdup: My favorite is always a second flush. The first is a bit too light for me.
Aravinda: You were born and raised in Darjeeling. Can you tell us what that was like?
Yangdup: So, this was in the eighties. I’m a child of the seventies, and I was in school throughout the eighties until 1989, when I finished school and then went down to the plains for higher studies. I was in a boarding school all through, And if you asked me what life was like, I think it was much simpler. Simplicity was, I think, the key at that moment and all those times. The fact that I come from a small little village within the district of Darjeeling. It’s a village called Gayabari, which is almost midway on the main highway when you go to Darjeeling. So it’s not from the main town of Darjeeling. And the Selim Hill tea estate was just about five feet to 10 feet away from me. So, you know, I’ve seen the estate and the tea gardens from a very young age. I could see the harvesting, but I didn’t understand that time what it was in terms of how many times the tea was harvested…No understanding of tea. But I’ve seen that all happen in front of me as a child. We used to just hang around the tea, play, and run amongst the estate with other kids from the village. So life was much simpler. It was great.
Now I can recollect the taste of tea leaves. While playing, we just plucked a few tea leaves and just bit into them. At that time, it was just like a playful thing to do. But today, when I try to recollect the flavor, it’s so nice because it’s pure green tea, absolutely unfermented. And there used to be these small ? I do not know what it’s called ? it was more like dry seeds, and it used to have a lot of water inside it. So I still remember as a child when you were thirsty, and you couldn’t get hold of water anywhere, you just plucked one of those, broke it in half ? it was nice and cold, and inside there was a jellylike thing, but very watery. And we used to just kind of drink those in small bits. So it was nice. I think it was very simple. It was great… open air, blue sky, simple life.
Aravinda: And then you left, Darjeeling and then you moved, you moved to Delhi. After college or after school?
Yangdup: I actually finished my Plus 2 (High School) from Darjeeling. So, till the 10th, I was in a boarding school in Kurseong, a small little town. And then, after that, I went down to Bagdogra, which is like the foothills of the Darjeeling hills. And that’s, that’s where I did the Plus 2 from the Army School. There’s an Army Base there. And then after that, after my Plus 2, I went down to Calcutta and did my hotel management. And after that, you know, three, four years in Calcutta and then into Delhi.
Aravinda: What did you miss most about home at that time when you first moved to the city?
Yangdup: I think I definitely missed a lot of the simplicity. You know, it was much more innocent. Life was much nicer — people were more gentle. You know, the roughness of the city did take a toll on me initially.
The whole idea was I always wanted to go back. Even when I came to Delhi, my idea was to be here for a few years and then return to Darjeeling. But then things also changed back home. The political situation over there, the fact that there was a lot of instability, and also unemployment was a big thing. It still is.
And I think in the last 20 to 25-odd years, it’s sad to say, but Darjeeling has changed for the worse. I understand all the hill stations are the same, you know, because it used to be much simpler, but now it’s become more commercial. But Darjeeling Hills as a whole, overall, has changed purely because of the political disturbance in the last 35-40 years.
I’m still very connected to my house. I’m rebuilding my ancestral property in that small little village. I visit my village every two or three months even now. I’m under the village Panchayat WhatsApp group. So I know I get all the updates. I very much enjoy participating. I’m very well connected to my village.
I can’t change the whole of the district, but at least in this small little village where I know people, you know, and they respect me, I try and do whatever little I can. I’m still very connected to my house. I’m rebuilding my ancestral property in that small little village. I visit my village every two or three months even now. I’m under the village Panchayat WhatsApp group. So I know I get all the updates. I very much enjoy participating. I’m very well connected to my village. I try to do whatever I can in terms of how I can contribute. I can’t change the whole of the district, but at least in this small little village where I know people, you know, and they respect me, I try and do whatever little I can.
But the simplicity, gentleness, and warmth were the most I missed in the beginning. And I could feel it as a young student, even when I went down to Calcutta. And when I came to Delhi, it was worse.
In the beginning, it was really tough. First and foremost, the gentleness of the language. Back home, when we talk to the elders, we are very respectful in the tone. When we speak to the youngsters or the younger people, it’s very soft, gentle, you know? And then, you know, with friends… There are different ways of addressing people. It’s not like that in Delhi. Everybody just called even a stranger ‘tu.’ It’s something that, we hate to do. I would pick up a lot of fights. I would get very angry when somebody said “tu” to me in the beginning. It took me about two years. And then I got to know also know that they didn’t mean it, you know, it’s the language, the culture. They were nice people. Just the way the language was in terms of how they spoke to each other was one of the most difficult things.
Aravinda: Did you carry your supply of tea with you when you went to Delhi, or was tea sort of a connection to home in any way?
Yangdup: In the beginning, when I came in, it was purely about survival. The idea was to figure out your life and your career. It was not about passion; it was not about interest. You didn’t know what you liked in life. All that you were looking for was a sense of security, right? So I was working very hard. Tea happened to me, I think, six months to one year after I started working.
I joined the Hyatt Regency in Delhi and was at the bar. Of course, back home, my dad used to be very fond of good quality tea. He would always talk about leaf tea. He did not have the technical knowledge. He called it orange pekoe, but he did not know that it was the grading type. For him, orange pekoe was great quality tea, but he meant leaf tea, and it was nice and delicate. As a child, every time we sipped into a cup of tea, you know because dad always spoke about it, you had the flavor in your mouth. So it was very strongly there.
And then later in Calcutta and Delhi, I was drinking CTC, the cooked tea. But I always liked the tea with tea notes rather than the milk. So I like the tea with milk, but not like the way the Delhiites drink – it is less water, more milk, and less tea. I like the tea, which had more tea liquor in it. I was drinking that. And I was working at the bar, Polo Lounge. Interestingly, there was this one packet that came into the Polo Lounge. It was kept in the back. There was, on the menu, Fine Champagne Darjeeling Tea. So this was a tea from an estate known as Ambootia. So, Ambootia Tea Estate is in Kurseong. My school was almost five kilometers above the town, and Ambootia was a few kilometers below the town. So I always knew about Ambootia. And the moment I saw that packet, you feel like, oh, there’s a home for you. That connected. None of the people, including my managers, nobody had any idea ? and I didn’t say to anyone, and that was supposed to be Fine Champagne Darjeeling tea. Basically, it was. I don’t even remember if it was first flush or second flush, but all I remember is that it was good quality leaf tea. It had a premium pricing in the hotel. But since nobody knew about it, nobody would really speak about it. So, the guests never got to experience it.
I was the one who finished the tea over the course of the next year. Because what I would do is every time I would make tea for myself a cup of tea at the bar, I would take a bit of Ambootia tea and put it in my tea. I never spoke about it to anyone, but I still remember it came in a nice ceramic jar— very nice packaging. I’m talking about ’95, ’96, ’97. A cup of tea at the hotel – at that time – the normal price tea would be, the cup would be Rs 150, but this one was priced at almost 300 bucks, so premium pricing. I’m sure it would’ve sold if there was proper tea training, but since it came as a sample probably, you know, more for sampling, nobody knew about it. The purchase didn’t know about it, and the F&B didn’t know about it. And for me, also, I didn’t know the technical aspect. I just knew it was tea from back home, and that it tasted like tea that I used to drink when I was home, So, I finished the tea.
But then inclination was always there, right? And after that, when I kind of settled down in Delhi, I figured out that my palate for tea was very different, I couldn’t just drink the normal CTC. Every time I go home for a holiday, I would always look for the second flush. If I did not get the second flush, then I would buy the first flush. And I had my regular supplies. I knew where to buy my tea. I love the Margarets Hope second flush because it’s closer to home. Every time I went home I would make an effort to drive to the tea room and just buy a couple of kgs of tea and bring it with me, and that was good enough for me for the next, six or seven months. I think about two years after I came to Delhi, I started bringing tea from back home for myself.
Aravinda: You also said you were making tea for yourself at the bar. Did you have like a sort of a routine where, you know, you started your day, or that was a tea break for you? Do you still continue to do that?
Yangdup: Sometimes in the morning, the first tea may be made for me, but if it’s after breakfast, I make it for myself. And I love tea with milk. A lot of people say Darjeeling tea, fine tea; you should not be adding milk. But to me, somehow, I’ve been so used to drinking tea with milk from my childhood years, the moment there’s no milk, I feel there’s poverty. Milk is something I’m very much fond of in my tea. When I am tasting tea, I don’t add milk. But if I’m enjoying a cup of tea, I would prefer it with – not a lot of milk, but some amount of milk.
When I started working in the hotel, I used to drink at least two to three cups of tea during those 7, 8 hours, 10 hours, and 12 hours that I’d spend in the hotel. I would always pick up the fine tea. The good thing was that I was working in a 5-star hotel! So they did have a good collection of tea. And I would always choose the tea that I liked. And while I was at the bar, there was always an inventory for alcohol, so the controllers would come to check on how much alcohol, but nobody really bothered about tea. So, you know, nobody even cared about who was drinking the tea. So it was alright. I think I was quite lucky to be able to drink good quality throughout. But I would always make my cup of tea. I like tea that has been infused for at least three to five minutes, I would always go to the back area, and pour a cup of tea or a pot of tea in the silver pot. And I would come into the front of the bar, make drinks, and whenever I had a little time, I would just rush back and then strain the tea and add some milk, and I would always go back and have my sip all the time.
Aravinda: What was the beverage industry like when you got into bartending? What’s the change you have seen in these years?
Yangdup: Cocktail culture, or let’s say, bar culture, did not really exist. It was purely about if you wanted a good drink and if you wanted to have good quality alcohol, you would have to get into a five-star hotel. Only the five-star hotels had good bars. They were not the best bars, but they were definitely much better bars. There were hardly any bars, any bar outside the hotel. So beverage was very restricted. And, of course, some rich people had their collection of alcohol at home. But it was very restricted there until the early 2000s when things started to open up more restaurants outside of hotels, more bars outside of hotels, and automatically, you know, you could then see better quality bartenders also emerge. It wasn’t a very evolved bar culture at all. It was just basic drinks, you know. Cocktails weren’t popular, and it was just regular drinks. If you made a Bloody Mary, people would look at you, oh, that’s a Bloody Mary. I still remember, you know, most of the hoteliers, even they were not very well versed or well-tuned with the beverages. If you were somebody who knew a little bit more about wines or whiskey, you were looked upon with a lot of respect because you were the most knowledgeable person. It wasn’t a cultural thing. I think it happened much later.
Even coffee was just coffee. Because we were in a hotel, we knew of cappuccino, espresso, and ristretto, but even Americano was not really popular, so coffee was very limited. Nobody really cared about what kind of beans you were using. It was just a standard way of making coffee. And the standard way of making tea.
Aravinda: You’ve also worked on changing the perception of what a bar should be and what a bartender’s role is. You’ve taken it upon yourself to change these perceptions. Why is that?
Yangdup: Yeah, absolutely. Because one is about, you know, I’m at the stage of my career where it’s not about finding security anymore. It’s about continuing to do what you’re good at, what you love doing. That’s very important. In the beginning, it was about finding your space. Now you’ve been able to find that space. You’re very much well settled. You have a good foundation. Apart from that, because I have always enjoyed what I did, I’ve always had a great time being in the beverage space, being in the bar space; I think it’s always nice to, you know, every time I talk to people, it’s always nice to share those moments. And when I share those moments, it’s not just about working in a fancy place; it’s about creating the atmosphere of being in that space or being in that atmosphere, and a lot of the responsibility lies in the hands of the bartender or the drivers of that. We are not just people who fix drinks. We create an atmosphere. So, it does not have to be about making a fancy cocktail all the time. You could just be serving a beer, but you could be this one person who makes all the difference for everybody around you. You are the nerve center of the operations. And that is why I keep talking about it, saying how important it is to make sure that the job profile of a bartender is beyond just cocktails. Cocktail is one of the 100 things that you do. There are 99 other things that you need to be good at. And in order to be good at it, you’ve got to enjoy the moment. You’ve got to enjoy the space, you’ve got to enjoy people, the conversations, and there’s a lot of learning throughout, right? And that’s, that’s how it becomes more interesting for you as well as for the consumer.
I’m sure you would’ve heard of this Long Island Iced Tea cocktail. It’s a very popular drink, and it was very, very popular in the 90s. Very American-driven. Interestingly, it’s called a Long Island Iced Tea, but it has Coke in it, right? And I remember at the Hyatt, it used to be one of those fast-selling cocktails as well. And people drank it not because it was good to taste; people drank it because it provided value for money. Or so they thought. I do not know if it was great value for money, but I remember doing a Long Island Iced Tea with tea in it. I said, Why is it called a Long Island Iced Tea, if there’s Coke in it? Why can’t we just put tea? And if you want to make it sweeter, you can always add sugar. I remember a few guests who loved it with tea, so they used to come back to the Polo Lounge, and every time they ordered the Long Island Iced Tea, I made it with tea in it ? not the finest, but definitely black tea. So that was my first thought about why can’t we do tea? But I never had the opportunity. I wasn’t as mature as a bartender as well. So, for me, it took a little time.
Much later, when I left the hotels, and I was on my own, I started working with brands. I still remember a whiskey company, a whiskey brand, approaching me and saying we would like to take the cocktail route for an activation. And this was a Scotch whiskey brand, a blended scotch whiskey. And they asked about the various ways in which we could do a signature serve. And I remember telling them whiskey with water is very popular. And I told them that tea is flavored water, right? So all we are doing is adding more flavor to the water you’re mixing your whiskey with tea. So why can’t we do whiskey and tea? Once that acceptance was good and it also excited the brand managers, I started exploring tea further. It doesn’t have to be just tea, and we need to define the tea aspect as well. The whiskey has a certain character, a certain flavor. What could be the correct tea to be mixed with that whiskey so that they complement each other and there’s no conflict? Right? So that is where the maturity came in as I started to think more about the varieties of tea that could be used, from green unfermented to semi-fermented to fully fermented black tea, right? So, there were several different styles of tea that could go with different styles of whiskey. And with every experiment and tasting, it only started to get better.
Aravinda: How did it taste? How did whiskey pair with black tea?
It was brilliant. Oh, yes. In a situation where you can choose what you want to eat, is when the taste and the flavor profile rules.
It’s a human tendency. And that is where the whole drinking experience also comes into play. When you have enough in front of you regarding the choice of whiskey. And if you only have water, it’s just one experience. But when you have more than water to mix with, and if you’re open to experimenting, if you’re somebody who is much more evolved, well-traveled, and you are okay to experiment, I think that’s where you find your combination.
So, it does not mean that everybody has to love whiskey and tea. I think some people loved that profile of the drink. It is not always necessary that whiskey has to be with soda. Whiskey can be with water, and it can also be with flavored water and all kinds of flavors, flavored with herbs. Tea is a type of herb. And some of it might appeal to a certain consumer.
Aravinda: Do you have a preference in terms of what tea you’d like to use when you are making a cocktail?
It depends upon what alcohol. If I get alcohol, let’s say it’s a good quality vodka, the vodka is only about alcohol. It does not have its own very strong flavor and character. So, it only lends that alcohol base. One can play around. So that’s where I could probably use tea, which has flowery notes. The ruling flavor or the ruling characteristic for the cocktail becomes the second ingredient, which is not the vodka but probably whatever else that we use. Like vodka and orange juice taste like juice that has been spiked, right? But the flavor of orange still remains. It’s an alcoholic orange juice.
The same thing applies to tea. But when we go beyond that when we go to, let’s say, finer alcohol where it has nice, delicate flavor notes if it has richness or earthy flavor present in it (here are some spirits which have more citrus notes present, for example). There are some spirits that have flowery notes, caramel, or, chocolate notes. Depending upon what characteristic the alcohol has, we need to choose the tea accordingly. So let’s say I’m making a nice, interesting martini with gin,
and if the gin is rich in terms of its aromatics, then I could use a lot of tea, also tea which has been blended with other herbs, like tea, which has flowery note, tea which has citrus notes. So that’s where you could be more experimental and see what works with that particular alcohol. But if it’s a nice, delicate spirit where the spirit also has to show its presence within the drink, when you make sure that you choose a tea that has a good balance of flavor, it’s not conflicting. It’s about the right balance. And all those things matter.
The second important thing is the measure and ratio. It should not be too much of tea. It should not be too much of a spirit. I think the right balance, the right measure, is also important. And I figured out that sometimes, it makes a great tasting drink when it’s in the ratio 1:1, and sometimes it makes a great tasting drink when the ratio is 1:2. So even that ratio will matter a lot, you know?
We always take it for granted, but tea can be cool, says Lama
Aravinda: The market is changing, and cocktails are a great way to showcase tea’s versatility. I think sometimes the perception is tea is an old person’s drink. So, how can we take Darjeeling tea and bring it into people’s lifestyles?
I worked in the past with a couple of estates. You know, it was a nice collaboration between us, our bar, and certain estates. And I’ve always spoken to the promoters, always said, you guys as stakeholders of tea business need to come together and then promote tea. I always cite examples of alcohol. Until ten years ago, India was not a country where gin was so popular. People drank more whiskey, and people invested in whiskey. Nobody would buy an expensive gin. Everybody would buy expensive whiskey if they had the money, but you would not buy expensive gin.
Gin was like, Kisi ko peena kai to peelenge. But then it became popular in other parts of the world. And then what also happened is there were gin makers in India, and especially in the last four, five years, what has happened is there at least 15 to 20 new gins that are there in the Indian market made by Indians, but all of them are making and talking about it. I know that only four to five of them will survive and do well. The balance of 15 will fade away. But the fact that all 20 participated in promoting gin and craft gin has helped the category. Similarly, in the tea space, I think what will happen is every stakeholder right from the Tea Board of India to the tea growers, the tea planters, the tea sellers, and the tea marketers, all need to come together and speak about tea and upgrade tea.
The biggest problem with tea ? especially Darjeeling tea ? is it’s very old school, and until and unless you make it cool. Like coffee is cool, you can walk into a cafe, and you’re perceived as the cool guy sitting in the coffee shop working on his laptop and figuring out stuff. So coffee’s always been marketed as the cool thing, whereas tea has always been that sophisticated stuff.
I was in Sri Lanka last week, and I landed at a hotel with and Sri Lankan host. They said, We’ll meet you today at 4 o’clock downstairs in the lobby, and there’s a high tea. I went there, and there was a proper high tea in the lounge. It came with scones, and when we were talking about conversations in alcohol, I said, yeah, tea could be about conversation. It’s like the whole high tea ceremony is almost two hours. You keep on sipping tea, and you have small muffins, sandwiches, and scones with cream. But that is very old school where have a lot of time like, so there are different ways. The culture was very English, right?
The coffee culture came mostly from the fact that you know, Starbucks’ of the world, Costa Coffees’ of the world, made it seem cool. It was an American concept. So it was for the younger lot. You are too stressed out in your office. You take a coffee break, or you can bring your coffee to your desk, and you start working. So it is all about that. But tea has not been perceived that way. Teas always like when you have the time, your mind is relaxed, that is when you drink tea. No, you can still drink when you’re working, right? So it also has to be marketed in that way. And made cool. So you, you need to have these interesting trees. And I think some of them, like Karma Kettle, these guys have been very experimental in tea, and they’ve made tea more approachable.
I think there is a lot of work to be done.
Tea was something that the British brought into India, although the Assam tea always existed. They took all the good quality outside of the country. They marketed elsewhere and made it their culture, but what they gave to the locals was dust and fannings, and that’s why we cook tea because it’s always nice when it’s cooked. And because we always drunk for the last 150 years, we always drank tea of the cheapest quality, we always take it for granted. So, nobody really gives it a thought. But I think as we progress and as consumerism grows within our country, there is a great opportunity for us to talk a little bit more about tea. Stakeholders have to do it. The more we talk, the more we exchange ideas, the more we appreciate the tea genuinely amongst ourselves, and that tea culture will kind of graduate to the next level.
Aravinda: I want to go back to what you were talking about, the craft gin movement and lessons to take away for tea. When you go to Darjeeling, do you feel optimistic about what you see there?
Totally. I think that change is coming in. Most of the traditional tea owners have sold off their estates. Most of the tea estates, especially in the 85 estates, now have changed hands. A lot of them who actually bought over the estate are not tea lovers. They were basically people who were into other businesses. They had a lot of money. They bought their estate purely because they thought it was a great opportunity and it cost them peanuts. But what I see now is a lot of the children who have studied abroad come back and they know that they have a strong financial background support. They’re all business families, but the fact that they’ve abroad, they’ve studied, they’ve travelled the world, and they don’t just do a regular thing. They don’t want to carry on their fathers’ business. They actually do something on their own. I’ve seen a lot of youngsters who’ve taken over their estate from their parents. And bought a lot of newer stuff. From tea tourism to doing more innovative styled teas. And I think that’s a great thing to see. I’m very optimistic that these things will change.
So, if you look at most of the tea bushes in Darjeeling, I think it’s more than 120 years old, it needs replantation. I’m a bartender. The more I love my craft, it will get better. But if I look at it only from a business point of view, I will only look at profit; it does not work, right? So I think it’s the same thing even with tea, you know when people get connected to the whole idea of tea is when they will bring in newer ideas, they’ll bring in more innovation and it’ll improve and I’m sure it’ll do really well. That change is being seen now. It’s gradual, it’s slow, but it’s started to happen.
Take for example, Sri Lankan tea, it’s exactly the same, right? It is much younger than Indian tea, but it has become amongst one of the world’s most popular styles of tea. Like Sri Lankan tea is very sought after. Every time I go to Sri Lanka, I enjoy Sri Lankan tea. It’s very nice.
I still see great potential in Darjeeling tea because the kind of fragrance that you get in Darjeeling tea you don’t get anywhere in the world. So, there’s something unique about this tea. It’s just that you need to realize and understand that you could actually bring in a very unique offering. The reason why it sells is for all of those connoisseurs; they’re ready to pay a very, very high price for it. That’s the biggest advantage. And it needs to be marketed well, and it needs to be propagated in a nice way by all stakeholders, and I’m very confident that it’ll do really well. I think Darjeeling tea does really well outside of India, but I feel it’ll start to do well even within the country. A lot of our own in-house consumers will start to appreciate it.
Aravinda: What would it have if you had to create a cocktail called Darjeeling?
Definitely, it’ll have the second flush. You know, two years ago, we did a collaboration with my bar Sidecar and Makaibari. The owner had come to the bar, and he was very excited when he learned I am from Gayabari and his estate is called Makaibari. It’s across the hill, in Kurseong. So, he invited me over to his estate. I went there, I stayed there, and it was really wonderful, and it gave me a lot of excitement because it was something very local, and I was really, really excited to do this collab. And we made a drink called The Darjeeling Mail. It was blended whiskey. The cocktail was called Darjeeling Mail, named after the very popular train that still plies between ? in the olden days Sealdah and the main Siliguri junction ? now it is NJP to Sealdah, and it’s a night train, and it’s a very popular train which most of us take when you go to Darjeeling. The cocktail is simple: a second flush with a little balance, a touch of bitters, and a blended scotch whiskey. And it was not a very premium blended whiskey. We just picked an entry-level blended whiskey, so you know, on the lines of a Red Label or a Black and White. So it was very approachable, not expensive, but something nice and soothing, and a tall drink. So yeah, if it is, it has to be a signature cocktail; it’ll always start with a second flush because that is something that I enjoy myself the most.
Photo by Lovey NegiPhoto by Depak BansalBy Nitiin GuptaaSidecar is an artisanal cocktail bar run by the passionate team of Yangdup Lama and Minakshi Singh
Trustea was launched in 2013 by tea industry stakeholders and producers determined to elevate the quality of India’s domestic tea. Today 65% of the tea produced in India adheres to the trustea Code. This month, trustea celebrates ten years of service, improving the competitiveness of tea gardens by positively influencing the practices and scale of production, farm organization, processing, new technologies, and supply chain development. We invited Rajesh Bhuyan, Director of the trustea Sustainable Tea Foundation, to describe’s trustea’s impact and plans for the decade ahead, including a Seal on Pack label to inform consumers of brand compliance with the code.
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Rajesh Bhuyan, trusteaRajesh Bhuyan, Director, trustea, India
Sustainability Assured
By Aravinda Anantharaman
Rajesh Bhuyan is the founding director of trustea, a sustainability code and verification system for Indian tea. The program is advised by an inclusive multi-stakeholder council that formulates and approves long-term strategies. The collaborative nature of the trustea “helps us when we go out and meet the tea community when we propagate our program because it has come out through the approval of the larger tea fraternity,” says Bhuyan.
Aravinda Anantharaman: Can you take us through what trustea does?
Rajesh Bhuyan: Globally, sustainability has been one of the major emerging challenges for all agro-commodity supply chains. India is the second largest tea producer in the world. So producing tea in a sustainable way is also critical from a global point of view. The trustea program was launched ten years ago, and it is unique in that it was a program that was conceived, developed, and completely launched in India itself. So it’s the “Make in India” program if you’d like to call it that. There is widespread acceptance because the industry launched it, and the acceptance levels are better. The program has elements that are specifically designed to address the Indian context for tea manufacturing. So that is another very important reason why we think that the producers and the buyers are finding value in the trustea program. Having completed ten years and come to a coverage of 65% of tea produced in India, I think that speaks volumes for the program’s progress and how the industry works with us.
Aravinda: So trustea is not about whether it’s CTC or Orthodox. It’s also agnostic in terms of the segment, right? How does trustea view and approach the industry?
Rajesh: So trustea is a sustainability program for tea. We cover the supply chain from the fields where the tea is picked up through manufacturing and the dispatch from the factory. So that is the ambit of the program. Everything within that falls under the trustea code. And within that – because we look at sustainability in a holistic way, we think that environment, livelihood, and safety go hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other. So the activities we deem sustainable, which we would like people to follow, cover these three pillars from, as I said, from the field up to the factory gate. So we cover all the operations, all the people, all the processes that come in this part of the supply chain.
trustea Sr. Manager (System Assurance) Anandita Ray Mukherjee, listens to women workers at our member tea garden.
Aravinda: And where would you say you’ve seen the most challenge in the last ten years regarding the interventions you’ve needed to bring in?
Rajesh: Indian tea is celebrating 200 years of tea in Assam, so it’s been around for a long time, which means that there must be elements of sustainability built into the DNA of the industry; otherwise, the industry would not be working for so many years. But we needed to bring a sharper focus and method into the actions and fill the gaps where more could be done to address these three pillars. So that was the transitional change, which we found a challenge, and the industry was very willing to adopt that. So the transition from the practices that we’re doing to bring them into focus, to put them into a method and to bring an element of continuous improvement into their activities, and also opening the thought process that business sustainability – all of these come together. So we need to have a very, very, focused approach, understanding that all these elements come together to create a successful business, and successful people, happy people, and a prospering environment all contribute to each other.
Aravinda: And that’s part of what makes it complex, right, the fact that we have the small growers, bought leaf factories, and the large estates, and each comes with its own set of challenges, potential, and opportunity. How, then, can you address this sort of complexity across India? It’s vast in volume and complex in regions and terrain. How can you bring these varyingfactors into a single umbrella?
Rajesh: From a larger perspective, the small tea grower community and the larger gardens complement each other. We are seeing an increasing trend where many tea gardens are processing tea from the neighboring small tea growers and their own tea. So this is a testimony to the fact that these two segments of the business are able to merge their interests for a common goal. And in a way, the challenges of sustainability are similar, but I would say it is more pronounced for the small tea growers because they have a very limited bandwidth to respond to critical challenges or very sudden adverse impacts because of their smaller area and smaller production and their financial abilities. So while we find that we have a common template for sustainability in both segments, the small tea growers need a different approach and a different hand-holding and learning atmosphere. So we have actually developed, within the trustea code, the small tea growers sustainability portion, which addresses specifically the requirements of the small tea growers. But overall, all of this contributes to the larger Indian tea industry. So I think, in spite of the differences, both of them will be able to work well when they work within the ambit of trust.
Aravinda: And that’s probably what will be the strength of the industry, right? To be able to bring these two segments together? And if you look back at the last ten years, where would you say trustea has had the most impact?
Rajesh: I think one of the areas where we have been able to bring in is a structure and system in operation. The other one focuses on the legal compliances which have a direct bearing on individual’s human rights, on mandated wages, on mandated benefits, because the trustea program, as I said, is being prepared in India. We have all the Indian legal requirements as a part of the compliance. When we engage with an entity, we can have a structured approach to ensure full compliance with the legal requirements, or if something is missed, that is covered. So in a way, while we benefit the workers, we can also provide a security and business continuity guarantee to the business. So, it’s ensuring we have a very structured, systematic way of looking at the compliances if there are any gaps in the compliances. Now, these compliances ensure that the business is also run without any interruption from a legal point of view and simultaneously deliver benefits to the employees. So it’s a win-win for both sides when we look at it. So I would say that’s an area where I think a systematic approach is helping all of us.
Aravinda: One of the things with certification that always comes up is how it translates to prices. Is that also something you’ve had to address with trustea? Does it come up and or have conversations now about sustainability moved beyond that?
Rajesh: So, if you look at the trustea program, this is because it is anchored to the law of the land. We do not have any requirements which are not what the law of the land requires. So in terms of compliance costs, per se, that’s the terminology many people use – the trustea program does not ask for compliance beyond the Indian law. And Indian laws, which are applicable to the food sector or the tea industry in particular, are what the industry is following. The other part about the benefit of being trustea is that it definitely provides access. A large segment of buyers would prefer to buy tea from sustainably-produced farms, farms that follow sustainable agriculture practices, and sustainable holistic practices. Now, being part of the trustea certification system provides them the access to that market. So in a way, it benefits businesses that they have the option of supplying to the sustainable section, and we think the most important thing is that small tea growers today, by way of the trustea-certified bought leaf factories, can offer their tea to the sustainable buyers. That’s a very important thing. Because they are covered in the trustea umbrella, small tea growers are getting access to that part of the market where they prefer sustainably produced tea. But at the same time, we would like to say that we are not part of the business side of the equation, we do not get into pricing, and our standard is anchored on sustainability and market access.
Aravinda: And looking ahead, where do you see the need for the most intervention for the industry?
Rajesh: I think now the time has come to look at climate-smart agriculture, look at practices which can be gradually changed so that we are able to adapt – and more than adapt, become resilient. So we have these very extreme weather events, and most of the tea planters tell me that their understanding of how the seasons operate is actually not translating into what they see on the ground. There are certain practices that our revised code – which we launched on July 11 – that prescribes practices that help smallholder farmers, as well as tea gardens, to kind of safeguard against the severe impact of any climate change events. So, I think slowly moving our practices from what we have been doing earlier, gradually moving to climate-resilient practices, will bring long-term benefits that they will be able to find protection against the adverse impacts of these events. And these events are happening, even as we speak, everywhere across India. And we have to remember that for an industry that is 200 years old, we have to move in a very structured and gradual way, but we have to begin those practices to be able to bulletproof ourselves against these adverse climate impacts.
Aravinda: What comes under sustainability? Now it’s climate change. But in the last ten years, as you’ve seen the sustainability journey evolve, what is your take on how it’s evolving? And how do you stay relevant and keep up with the demands of what is defined as sustainability?
Rajesh: Ten years ago, the challenge of the impact of climate change was not as pronounced as it was today. And therefore, when the stakeholders formulated the Code, these elements were not in as sharp focus as they need to be today. And now, with the revised Code, we are focusing on two very key things which will give them the ability to manage climate change the right way. One is what we are calling regenerative agriculture, practicing regenerative agriculture, which is agriculture that is friendly to the soil and the planet. And the other one is managing energy in such a way that it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and benefits the garden overall. In fact, reducing carbon emissions has a financially beneficial spinoff that if we are able to demonstrate in a structured way, of course, there are protocols and processes, and there is actually a financial gain that can be had from the reduction of carbon emission. And there are a lot of people who will be able to help the industry to benefit from that if their processes which we are proposing through the revised code, actually can be demonstrated to have reduced their carbon emissions. So there’s, there’s, in fact, another avenue for them to get financial gains out of their climate-friendly work.
Adherence to the trustea Code promotes factory and supply-chain best practices.
Aravinda: So, is the vocabulary changing on what constitutes sustainability? Is that evolving with the changes that are coming up?
Rajesh: One major change in the thought process, which the trustea code was one of the first to address, is that sustainability is not a stand-alone event. Sustainability comes in an approach where the community, the environment, the people, and the business all come together to deliver the goal. So, in isolation, it cannot be achieved; it has to be a holistic approach. More and more people and more and more businesses and supply chains are realizing that that is the fundamental connection that has to come into what is being done every day to be able to deliver so that the people who make up the supply chain, the people at the bottom of the pyramid have to be equal stakeholders in what is happening, have to benefit equally, then only the benefits of sustainability can be delivered all across the supply chain.
Aravinda: And that comes through when you look at the trustea Council, with representation from every segment and everybody.
Rajesh: When the trustea organization was set up, it was with much thought that a multi-stakeholder council was put in place. Because even at the inception of the program, way back in 2013, it was done through a lot of industry-wide consultation. So that spirit of multi-stakeholder input was always there in the program. When we became a registered company, we thought that the stakeholder Council had to be created with a legal role in giving input to the philosophy and the direction of the program. So that voice of the Indian tea fraternity is not lost when we go ahead. So we gave it a formal role which was a multi-stakeholder Council, and all our decisions and all our long-term strategies are formulated and approved by the Council, which helps us when we go out and meet the tea community when we propagate our program because it has come out through the approval of the larger tea fraternity.
Aravinda: And now that 65% of the production is trustea verified, when do you think 100% can be achieved?
Rajesh: I would say 100% is not our goal and never has been our goal. trustea is a voluntary system to standard. And as long as it meets the business philosophy of the organizations who opt for the program, we are there to help and support. So it has never been a goal and will not be a goal because we think the basic voluntary nature and the beneficiaries should find some value in what we do. And there are various types of businesses and various segments that do business in various ways. So trustea is one of the options for them to carry on their business. So, I would say we are happy that we are growing, but we have no ambition of being 100%.
Aravinda: What can we expect to see in the near future from trustea? Is there anything in the pipeline that you’d like to share?
Rajesh: Three very important focus areas that we will look at when we go ahead into the next ten years, so to speak. One is regenerative agriculture, and we would like to be the people who bring these practices onto the ground. trustea is building up the capability to deliver this to the industry.
The other one is on technology. We are investing heavily in technology, we’re investing heavily in IT, to be able to bring these benefits to people like the smallholder farmers, and some of it is already now being seen.
The third focus area is the safety of the workforce, especially the women. Now women, as we know, constitute more than 50% of the workforce in the tea garden. And there is legal protection for them through the POSH Act. But on the ground, we find that there’s a lot to be done in terms of sensitizing all the women workforce, even the management, about their duties, women about their rights, and what constitutes harassment. So that’s going to be a very important focus area. In fact, we are partnering with an organization called the Women’s Safety Accelerator Fund with the intention of getting a deeper impact on our work in the tea garden. So that’s an indication of how important this facet of women’s safety is for us because a safe and secure women’s workforce, I think, is very, very important for the industry to progress.
Aravinda: That sounds like another busy decade ahead. How can consumers how can tea drinkers access the benefits of what trustea brings to the industry? How will you link back to the consumers?
Rajesh: So far, the trustea certification was limited to the wholesale trade so that tea producers would be certified. And the buyers of tea in bulk would prefer sustainable products; therefore, the consumer was not part of the sustainability dialogue. But it was always the goal of trustea that we have to reach the consumer because the end beneficiary of everything we do is the consumer, who is always important to us.
So trustea has launched a program called the Seal on Pack, which means retail packets of tea will have the trustee seat so producers who retail, packeteers who buy trustea verified tea, and then pack trustea verified tea will be able to put the trustea seal on their pack and the consumer who buys this pack will be able to understand and feel the fact that they are they’re buying a tea which promotes safety, livelihood, and environment across the supply chain.
So there are a lot of consumers today who would like to contribute to the well-being of the supply chain company, especially the lower end and also do good for the planet. So we are also running a campaign educating the consumers about what trustea is and what it means to buy a pack of sustainable tea. And we will have this connection, and this campaign is going forward in a larger way. And we are very excited to give the end consumer an opportunity to have a say in and understand what trustea is all about.
And I think globally, there is a very clear trend of increasing demand for sustainably produced products by consumers. And this trend I’m sure will also be in India. And those people who sell products with the trustea seal and therefore encourage the trustea program to deliver on its goals, I’m sure, will find it connects with the right consumer.
Aravinda: When will the seal on the pack be seen in the markets, in the packets?
Rajesh: Certain retailers have already started putting the seal on the pack. More and more such packs will be available on the shelf. And trustea has this process by which there are rules and regulations which have to be followed for a retailer to be able to claim to be trusted verified. And organizations that meet these and work with us, and we have this two-way commitment, are the ones who put that seal on the back. More and more will be there. We are seeing some on the shelf. And I expect in the coming years; consumers will have more choices.
Aravinda: I think it’s something for people to look for when they shop.
Jyoti Bharadwaj launched TeaFit in 2021, offering a range of unsweetened iced tea and herbal blends. She has since added unsweetened premixes to the portfolio. For India, a country with a large population suffering from diabetes, she says, unsweetened beverages were needed, and tea offered the perfect vehicle. More recently, Jyoti was featured on Shark Tank India, where celebrity entrepreneurs agreed to invest INRs 50,00,000 rupees (USD $60,000) in the brand. Jyoti talks about functional, condition-specific, and ready-to-drink tea and how her brand is helping tea shed its fussy image.
TeaFit founder Jyoti Bharadwaj Joyti Bharadwaj and family pitch TeaFit on the Shark Tank TV program
Aravinda Anantharaman: Will you share the story of how TeaFit came to be?
Jyoti Bharadwaj: I have had a rather longer route to entrepreneurship. I wasn’t born to be an entrepreneur, nor do I come from a family of business people. We are the typical service-class Indian family that focuses on education and grades, and you become an engineer, get into consulting, and do an MBA, so that’s the route I had for myself as well. So, I am an engineer. And then, I did my MBA from the Indian School of Business. Somewhere in the middle, for a couple of years. I did work in a large IT company. But I think that taught me what I don’t enjoy or am not cut out to do. And thankfully, I learned that fairly early in life. After that, I did my MBA and have been building startups. So, after two successful startups, I was honestly beginning to get a bit bored. Liabilities were taken care of, I had paid off my huge education loan, and I had a nice house in Bombay. And that was pretty much it. I was taken care of in that sense. So that itch to do something meaningful beyond the next job, I think, was gnawing at me a little bit. And also, my kids were really young. I was not enjoying staying away from my young ones for so long every day.
I have traveled to Japan quite a few times. And I really enjoyed the unsweetened beverage space of Japan. And just the pride the Japanese folks, have in traditional cuisines that somehow pick up or resonate from their traditional teas, herbs, and botanicals. And so for every Cola or sugary beverage, you will find in vending machines 20 different types of teas that are made from greens, from oolong tea to matcha, you name it. And I was blown away by the kind of selection there and the access people had to good products or products that are good for you.
When I visited the beverage aisle here back home, there were just three broad categories: Cola, fruit-based/sugar-based beverages, and energy drinks, and somewhere in the middle is where you have to make a choice. The whole game is pinned on the idea the Indian consumer wants things sweet. When you look at the options, they are so limited that you can’t really blame the typical consumer for picking what they do.
Aravinda: So, what is TeaFit all about?
Jyoti: I come from a diabetic family. My parents are diabetic, and I am borderline diabetic. India now has ten crore (100 million) diagnosed diabetics. It’s a serious number, and somewhere I felt that the responsibility lies with irresponsible brands in pushing such products. Mainstream marketing and kind of, making it cool to have this ten times a day, and associating it with aspiration, with happiness, and with, you know, all of the other strokes of marketing. So, like, the seed was there in a way to build something responsible, to build something intentional, where it’s not just less bad for you, things that are good for you that can be bottled up.
There are many herbal recipes from our own Ayurveda. We selected tea as a base to make the blends flavorful and light on the palate and not douse everything with loud flavor and sugar. So that’s where it came from, a very personal place, but I’m glad it found resonance in the larger customer base.
I would also like to say that with all the destruction that COVID caused, I think a small glimmer of hope that it gave everybody was that people got conscious of what they were consuming overnight, and label awareness grew. They wanted to read the back of the label slightly more than they did previously. So if earlier you saw a product that says ‘Good for you,’ or ‘Increases height,’ or ‘Loses weight,’ they would pick it up, but today, they flip the bottle around and see what’s actually there in the nutritional panel. So that’s, in a rather big nutshell, my journey. I’m glad that I’m representing responsible brands in the space, and it’s an absolute privilege to do what I do and to survive the early days of difficult days of the business to be here to be talking to you today.
Aravinda: How difficult was TeaFit to formulate and produce? And what did you have to do to achieve healthful flavor? In India, I also feel that we have become so used to things being slightly exaggerated in flavors, right? More spice, more sweet, deep fried, and we tend to associate those with better taste. I think that’s sort of what we’ve been given. So, on the production side, what did you have to do to ensure you still retain the integrity of what you wanted the product to have without compromising on flavor?
Jyoti: I would like to take a minute to highlight that I was clueless. I was as clueless about the business as the next person on the street. So it did take me longer to figure out. I literally Googled on day one of quitting my job, ‘How do you make iced tea at scale’? Everything started with Google. And then, very soon realized there was no way I could do this myself; I needed to find people who knew more than me playing Einstein. So I would say that whatever success I’ve achieved, I think that’s more to do with the kind of talent I have been able to convince to come on board than being able to solve things quickly myself.
So I researched the top leaders in Ayurveda, who are the product heads of large companies like Himalaya Herbal, and then I went and knocked on their door and begged them to come on board and work on this idea with me. My broad stroke problem statement was that the product we want is a healthy beverage with no sugar and a base in tea. It features herbs blended in combinations that help you fight the stresses of modern life. You’re always on the go; you’re always ordering in food, something that would, you know, that could help you with digestion, that could help you feel light, energizing, that doesn’t add to the sleepiness.
The initial journey was difficult until I found the right people to work with. I feel that when you start out with the right intention, you find good people to work with. So, I would like to highlight a pharma company in the Ayurvedic space they are based in Nashik called Rev Pharma. I was a one-woman army, they could just shut the door in my face, but they didn’t; they respected the idea. And they allowed me and my team to utilize the facility to do the entire product development, do the tinkering on Ayurvedic formulation, and see what kind of extracts we would need. Would we need powdered extracts, liquid extracts, or spray-dried extracts? But we did struggle to come to the right flavor initially in the absence of sugar because first, you take out sugar, then you add, you know, a blend of 15 herbs.
Some herbs are as bitter as noni fruit. I’m not sure how aware you are, but it’s really bitter. You can’t really take even a spoonful of it. We wanted the benefits. We didn’t want the bitterness. That took a lot of time to get right. It did taste bitter for, I think first three productions. And I knew if it didn’t taste great or how good for you it is, nobody’s going to drink it. We added licorice to it, and we added cinnamon to it, which kind of fools your mouth into making the flavor palate a little more rounded, with a faint hint of sweetness. A lot of iterations are what it took for us to get to the product.
We also didn’t want to lose the delicate flavor, the notes of the tea. We use our tea from a single-origin farm in Assam called Zendai Tea Estate and another similar state in Kerala for green tea. Initially, the tea would be too strong, and it would just be very astringent. It would have lost its finer top notes. So then we redid the entire fabrication of the brewing process. The manufacturing plants in India are typically made for either carbonated beverages or they’re made for fruit-based beverages. So for our tea brewing and herb brewing, we had to set up a whole different line wherein you do it outside the filling line at the temperature you want and then introduce the brew into the main filling line. So it did take a while for us to figure it out. Lots of failed experiments where an entire batch was on the floor because the filter got choked. So we’ve also had a journey where because we have done things from the ground up, seen every possible thing that could go wrong, and therefore, you know, we are now doing it right.
Aravinda: So how long did it take from you know the point when you started the R&D and to, say the first batch that you said, Okay, I think we’ve cracked it?
Joyti: Fourteen months is what it took, from the sketch of the product. And I also was a little bit ziddii*, in the sense that I didn’t want to take shortcuts, so I didn’t want a bottle that existed. So this bottle, you see, was designed by the Indian School of Design and Innovation, so it did take me some time to figure out who would do the bottles for us. And when you’re new, you don’t know the limitations of the industry. So I didn’t know that if you have a bottle like this, it’s hard for you to do hot fill because the bottle collapses so I also figured out a lot of things along the way like I said, I’ve made every mistake I could have made, and I am still alive.
Aravinda: That itself calls for congratulations. Why tea? Why was your starting point tea?
Joyti: I felt the kind of products I wanted to make was hard to do in a fruit-based beverage, and power drinks I didn’t want to touch in the beginning because, like I was anti-everything that carbonated drinks stood for. And also like I’m a tea person. I like tea. So it started as a pet project of mine, I used to do it in the kitchen, you know, hibiscus tea, and all sorts of tea, barley tea when I came back from Japan, and people started liking it. So I was like, this is one thing I know how to do. And let me work on this. I also felt like it allowed for the botanicals to find a good home for being effective and finding a synergized flavor. If you put the same thing in juices, it just tastes very off.
My Nanaji (maternal grandfather) used to make black lemon black tea, which is legendary in our whole locality. He’s no more; God bless his soul. But I think I was hooked on that. So the first two or three things I wanted: I wanted his lemon black tea. And also, Aravinda, from a business perspective, the drink itself was alien to the Indian consumer. There was no unsweetened drink per se like there was an odd water or a couple of other drinks like that, but there was no drink with a personality of its own and was unsweetened. So there was a bit of unfamiliarity to begin with. And we didn’t want to make it further unfamiliar, like adding two steps of alienation by creating a flavor that’s not mainstream. We wanted to go with the two most mainstream flavors which are lemon and peach in iced tea, and give that to customers saying, “Look, your lemon and peach iced tea could be this.” So that’s what we wanted to go ahead with, just making it less complex as an introduction or making it less complex to decide on the first purchase, the first trial.
As a business owner, your holy grail is trials and then eventually the beats. So for a bootstrapped brand, if you have to pursue trials, either your packaging has to be phenomenal, the brand has to be really catchy and simple for you to understand, or the product has to be really simple for you to understand. So for all of these reasons, we wanted to keep the complications kind of as minimum as possible. We made lemon black tea, and we did a peach drink tea, and we did barley tea which was something that I personally liked a lot it has immense health benefits, and it will be tragic if people don’t get to try it. These are the three products that we started with.
Aravinda: Would you say health is still the main marketing angle for tea? Do you think people respond to health and wellness as in the marketing conversations, or is it flavor?
Jyoti: As a product-first company, I will say if you don’t have a strong product, no amount of positioning of the product will really get the customer pull. So first, the product has to be incredibly strong, which means it has to check all the boxes. If you ask me what is important – is the health angle important, is the flavor important, is the price point important, is the availability important – I would say all of these four, if they are in place, only then there’s a hope that you know the customer will discover you, will decide to part with his money to try your product. So in my case, I was hell-bent on finding the right flavor. We wanted customers to come for the flavor. You flex on the flavor, you know? Health is something we take care of, it’s something that is in the product, but you come for the flavor.
Even the premixes that we have launched, milk tea premixes, are unsweetened, but if you drink the product, it is phenomenal. We could have put fillers in it or done all kinds of shortcuts to arrive at a cheaper product that probably would appeal to a wider range of audiences. But we didn’t. We were like, this is what we’ll do, we’ll find our consumers, maybe everybody’s not my customer. It’s important to know how wide a net you want to cast because that will determine what kind of product you will develop.
Aravinda: And with marketing, have you relied heavily on online and digital, or have you gone for a bit of both?
Jyoti: We knew that we have to be present in the offline touchpoints, wherever impulse buying happens. And so we our first point of sale was not online or on our website. It was Nature’s Basket stores in Mumbai. We started with a few of them. And in the longer view, if I take a longer view of things, I would say that distribution is probably more important than anything else regarding the beverage business. By that, I mean trade, finding the right channels, setting up distributors, and ensuring your product is available. Because even after Shark Tank, I feel like I lost a lot of customers, or maybe I advertised for my competitors in that sense because our distribution was not there. If somebody in Delhi went to buy a TeaFit after watching us on Shark Tank, we were not available. A lot of marketing without distribution is marketing for the competitor. So we’ve not done a lot of marketing; we are looking to focus on building deeper distribution within Mumbai, within Pune, and then spread radially from there. And online and commerce, we are pretty much everywhere today, on Big Basket, Blinkit, and these platforms. So we want to be wherever the customer is, in the best, most cost-efficient way. And most of our marketing is organic, we do some marketing on the platforms where they’re on. Like, if you’re an Amazon, we’ll do some Marketing on Amazon. And similarly, for the e-commerce platforms, we do some marketing in stores where we are, we do sampling activities.
A big blitz will get you trials, right? It will get your eyeballs, will definitely make people curious, and make them try. But if you don’t have the right product, they will not return. So I always insist that it is not the first PO or the first order that matters, but it’s also the second PO, right? The second order, or, you know, the second time the distributor calls you and says, I need to talk. And those are the real markers of where the business is going.
Aravinda: Tell me about the Shark Tank experience. Why did you choose to go? What happened? How was it? And how has it been post that?
Joyti: I don’t think I chose it. I think it chose me because there were so many people who applied for it. And all great businesses. Many far ahead in the journey than me. In fact, I applied last year, also. I was like two weeks, two months into the business, I had done a sum total of Rs 20,000 in revenue and applied. So the guts were always there. And I did get through all the rounds, even in the first season. But I was traveling when they wanted to come, so I had to skip it. This season, I didn’t apply with any hopes. Honestly, I’ve seen all 85 episodes of Shark Tank to know that it’s almost a fluke that you make it or it’s a stroke of luck. So I would say that probably my story resonated with them. There are a couple of rounds of applications wherein they ask what’s your big vision? What’s the big idea? What is it that you’re building? And if you get shortlisted for a second round, which is also written down but fairly detailed in terms of revenue, product market fit, and your footprints, all of that. And then, you have to submit a three-minute video pitch to them. If they like it, they call you. And that day, I didn’t have any baby care at home. So I took my kids with me on the day of the auditions. So whoever is in the audition must attend the final shoot. So I had to take them on the final shoot even though I was unsure how the kids would behave. But I guess it went well. I am generally not a very camera-friendly person. I prepped for it, and then I went. I had done the business in and out from day one alone. So those answers you will always have, and I felt like that came through well in the show. We got a lot of love. Our phone didn’t stop ringing for weeks. We had 300-350 distributor inquiries overnight; sales skyrocketed, and the website shut down… so all of the good things a business faces, we faced all of that, and it has given us like catapult us into a different stratosphere.
So I was playing at a very small business level, now I would say that, you know, we are fighting bigger problems. I have a bigger team overnight now. I was doing a couple of interns and a friend. Now I’ll have like a legitimate team of people. More than anything, people know about the brand. People know what we do. So the kind of exposure the brand gets makes up for any inhibitions you have as a founder. If you’re a consumer brand, if you’re at a stage where your product is available for people to buy, I think you should absolutely do everything in your power to try and get your 15 minutes on TV.
Aravinda: Are you still riding on the success of that?
Jyoti: It doesn’t sustain in the way, it becomes 100x in the first month, right? And then it slows to 50-60x, but that 5-6x would have taken you that long to get there on your own. Honestly, it’s hard to quantify everything that comes your way. Sales are one way to quantify, but just the number of opportunities that come up… brands like Zepto, Blinkit, and other e-commerce platforms. If I were nobody, which I was before Shark Tank, it would be much harder to get into closed-door conversations like that. And platforms like that, just access becomes a lot easier. I’ve been meeting people like Harsh Mariwala, and just being able to pick their brains for even a five-minute conversation, it’s a whole different mindset that it puts you into. You start to think about what’s possible and think of bigger possibilities for yourself, the brand, and what it can do. And, you know, you start to believe in leapfrogging and not just building brick by brick. This was one such milestone for us.
Aravinda: Do you want TeaFit to be seen as a tea brand? One of the things within the industry I hear is that coffee is cool; tea hasn’t been able to crack that and get younger customers. Something like TeaFit would, I imagine, interest younger people. So how does TeaFit fit into the larger developments shaping Indian tea?
Joyti: So we feel like there’s a ton of scope to make tea cool, and tea associated with the elderly is, I think, an idea of yesterday purely because it has not been presented in the way with the amount of cool as that coffee does. As a tea-drinking country, I feel like there is an absolutely wide open gap to create a brand that is intentional that is responsible that is cool that is that aligns with the value systems of the young buyer today, and we absolutely consider ourselves to be a tea band before you know any other brands so There’s a lot of innovation that we are currently working on, to innovate on different products and incorporate tea in it. Maybe chocolates. We are working on not just a vertical extension of the product but also taking it horizontally and seeing what else we can do with tea and what other products we can incorporate tea into. I feel like we are at a stage where discerning young people want more than traditional cola/ energy drinks. You do see a lot of experimentation in the cocktail space, in the cocktail/mocktail space, the party space, so to speak. I feel like no innovation has happened in the tea and RTD beverages. So we’re glad to be going after that space and building a brand that resonates with the youth and hopefully makes tea drinking as cool as coffee.
