Bangaloreans warming up to chai

Tea lovers in city never had it so good. Urban tea bars, lounges, kiosks and quick service restaurants (QSRs) now offer numerous flavours. Chai suddenly is fashionable. Want to grab a quick glass of tea en route to office? Or just want to chill with buddies? No problem. Whatever your need, delectable flavours—green teas, white teas, herbal teas, black teas, oolongs, fruit teas are now served in a stylish ambience.

Youngsters today do not mind spending a few bucks on a cup of tea.

“It is now stylish to have green tea or white tea. Tea has become the health drink for many people. Hence, they do not mind spending Rs4,000 per kilogram on Darjeeling tea or China tea,” says Gaurav Saria, who started Infinitea, a tea cafe in Vasanth Nagar.

According to him, city’s youth now go for the flavour and smell of tea rather than the kadak chai, which has traditionally been the preferred version. The roadside tea stalls became extremely popular for boiling the tea till it got a dark brown colour. Hence, somewhere in the middle, tea lost the ‘cool’ tag. It became a drink that one could have every morning but not while hanging out with friends.

Tea lounge owners in the city seem to have started a silent revolution to pluck tea out of shabby roadside stalls, marked by burnt utensils and put the brew on a pedestal. And the city’s young brigade has given a thumbs up to this.

“Tea culture is coming up in a big way. Even five years ago, it was difficult to make people spend more than Rs40 for a cup of tea. However, now there is a change in mindset,” says Chirag Yadav, founder and director, Chaipatty.

The craze for tea in Bangalore is also because of the increasing health awareness among the educated class, remarks Amuleek Singh, founder Chai Point. “Tea has become part of health and wellness,” he says.

So much so that tea is now being served in government offices as well. “A couple of weeks ago, I was in Vidhana Soudha for some work. The officer there served me green tea, citing health reasons,” says Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults.

To say Bangalore is still predominantly a coffee hub, would be wrong, points out Bijoor. “The city is host to people from 26 other states. They are ready to experiment beyond the usual cappuccino and latte. Drinking black tea, white tea or green tea is suddenly the ‘in thing’.”