Fragrant and healthy: India warms up to colourful chai

This monsoon, colours of the rainbow can not only be spotted in the sky, but also in a tea lover’s cupboard, as India sees a growing demand for organic, loose leaf and herb teas. With the pandemic putting lives on reset, the tea market has been seeing colourful, milk-less teas gain prominence as tea lovers found more time to get the brew right and experiment with flavours.
'Flower-based teas help beat stress, lose weight'
During the pandemic, people got to discover the potential of floral brews, like rose herbs tea, marigold tea, hibiscus and blue pea flower tea.“Flower-based teas have a good effect on stress regulation, calming nerves, helping in better sleep and even aiding weight loss. Hibiscus brews are also good for a sore throat. Plus, these brews look beautiful in a tea cup,” says nutritionist Prachi Jain. Before the pandemic and the onset of WFH, tea lovers did not have time to brew these fragrant and beautifully hued concoctions, but now most of them have nailed the art. Megha Gajbiye, a media professional who is hooked on blue pea flower tea, shares, “It took some practice, but after a few attempts I started getting the brew right. Now it has become the go-to beverage for my evening chai time.”
'Loose leaf, herbal teas drinking sees a boom'
These two years have also put a pause on traditional chai made with tea dust, as tea drinkers are levitating towards loose leaf and herbal teas after realising their benefits. Founder and CEO of TeaCupsFull, Shikha Puri agrees and says, “There is a huge shift in the demand of loose leaf tea. It is certainly healthier; wellness building and the leaves can be reused. It’s priced at more than the regular tea dust, but people aren’t complaining.” Shikha adds that the market for these variants has risen by 20 percent since the lockdown. Likewise, there is also more awareness around herbal teas that contain immunity-boosting herbs like ashwagandha, mulethi, turmeric, saffron, nutmeg etc.
Experimenting with blends and colours
Anyone who loves these beverages also takes the taste and feel of the drink into account. That’s how tea makers, sommeliers and drinkers are coming up with new brews like apple spiced tea, orange peel brew, hibiscus lemongrass tea etc. Puran Suppa, from the customer service team of Teabox, shares, “These days people want to brew artisanal tea at home. For which they look for new types of blends like mountain brews, detox kahwa and hibiscus lemongrass tea, that not only look appealing, but also bring about a new taste.” Shikha, whose husband and in-laws have garnered years of knowledge about tea having worked at tea estates, adds “Tea lovers are experimenting with unusual flavours like paan rose green tea, orange blast, turmeric ginger green tea and more. In fact, these are also considered as great gift options for the festival season.”

- "Chai is not the same anymore, people's perception regarding tea is changing lately. This has upped the demand for herbal teas four-five times in this era of pandemic. There are two main reasons for this - one, there was an increased awareness regarding the benefits of leaf and herbal tea. Second, people had more time on their hands to learn more about tea and its blends, correct brewing methods, etc. " - Susmit Pratik, proprietor of Ketlee
- "A friend gifted me an assorted tea package for my birthday recently, and I was amazed to find flavours like mango mint, apple spice, marigold green tea, rose petal tea and lavender tea. Now that I have acquired the taste for these multicoloured teas, I have also invested in getting the right brewing apparatus" - Nishant Mehta, a chartered accountant from Mumbai