Trend of Mushrooming Cafes and Bakeries alongside Tea Boutiques
First published on Hospitality World ; contributed by Madhav Sarda, Managing Director, Golden Tips Tea
Tea is one of the most loved beverages in India and across the world. PM Modi’s “tea connection” has caught the imagination of an entire generation. People have enjoyed tea since time immemorial and consider it to be one of the most cherished parts of their native culture. The love of Indian audiences for this super beverage has given the tea industry a loyal customer base in the country.
According to expertmarketresearch.com, the Indian tea industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of about 4.2% in the 2021-26 period and reach an approximate valuation of 1.40 million tonnes by the end of this period.
Like a bolt from the blue, the Covid pandemic has changed the world forever. A new normal has emerged in almost every aspect of life. This has resulted in tea retail brands to tweak their business strategy and start opening bakeries and cafes alongside their boutiques to cater to popular demand. Not surprisingly, branded tea cafes are frothing up across India’s cities, as an upgrade to the ubiquitous CHAI stalls.
These cafes are located either adjacent to, or within the tea boutiques themselves. They are offering specialized tea mocktails and snacks like cookies, macarons and sandwiches to guests along with premium teas. This combination is a hugely popular concept brewing all over India.
As per a study by Numr Research, about 443 million Indian millennials spend more than Rs 4,000 on their wellness and experiential activities every month. They form the largest group of consumers who will drive consumer demand and result in economic growth in the next decade. They are in fact, accentuating this trend of opening tea bars alongside tea boutiques.
Earlier, tea stalls were a common sight across India, but they were fragmented and unorganised. Tea café chains like the one started by Golden Tips are emerging across India and giving consumers a midway option between at-home consumption and the humble roadside stall. These tea cafes offer a comfortable alternative as against roadside tea vendors and which provide people a more relaxed setting, with proper seating and snacks.
Another narrative worth a thought is that coffee is not a common man’s beverage in India and which allowed cafés to position coffee as trendy and as a consequence of which, coffee outlets became aspirational places. They offered a chic ambience, with an assortment of beverages, snacks along with free wi-fi, and thus became hangout areas for college going crowds and young professionals. Tea companies tried to copy this model, but initially it did not take off since tea is a common man’s drink in India. As a result, tea brands quickly moved towards enhancing the overall tea-drinking experience for the customer by opening plush tea bars.
More importantly, they have positioned themselves as casual Vis-à-vis coffee shops’ sophistication, encouraging customers to make multiple visits a day in contrast to coffee chains. This is in line with how tea is seen in India – as a people’s drink consumed - sweet, milky or even without milk - several times a day.
Post Covid, this homage to Indian roots is mainly what tea companies are bringing to the table in a contemporary setting. This shift in strategy appears to be paying off for the tea brands. Providing more varied options than coffee chains at lower price, goes a long way in appealing to consumers, especially experience-hungry millennials.
For example, a cup of MASALA CHAI at Golden Tips tea bar is priced at INR 80 with complimentary cookies as well, whilst the cheapest coffee at Starbucks could set you off by INR 200 or more. Targeting Millennials is not surprising, since almost a third of the country’s population is in the 15- 35 age group, who are also likely to share their experiences on social media and other platforms.
Meanwhile, personalisation is a major selling point for Golden Tips tea bars. Customers can choose from our eclectic variety of teas and a range of herbs and spices at reasonable rates. With these options of customising their tea, patrons can conjure up a cuppa that appeals to their palate and preference.
This highlights the need for brands to constantly reinvent themselves to reach out to newer customers, not only with product innovations but also with formats that cater to changing times and needs. This can go a long way in acquiring new audiences without alienating traditional brand loyalists.
Madhav Sarda is the expert tea taster and managing director of tea retail brand Golden Tips Tea
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New trends defining the tea industry in India
The demand for premium teas has increased and customers are displaying an active interest in the purchase of premium teas online which, in turn, is facilitating sales by providing additional product information and bolstering consumer knowledge and awareness.
Raise a toast to tea
Tea is one of the most loved beverages in India and across the world. People have enjoyed tea since time immemorial and consider it to be one of the most cherished parts of their native culture. Indians’ love for this super beverage has given the tea industry a loyal customer base in the country, which has resulted in fast-paced growth.
Butterfly Pea Flower (Blue Tea): A Wonder Beverage Par Excellence
'First published on the health site contributed by Madhav Sarda, Managing Director, Golden Tips Tea'
Blue Tea helps boost immunity, acts as paracetamol, and has anti-aging effects. Read on to know more about the health benefits of butterfly pea flowers.
Over the years we all have come across various types of teas like Black, Green, Masala, and White teas, but have you ever heard of Blue Tea? Seems a bit weird for tea to have that name, right? Made by infusing Butterfly Pea flowers, Blue tea (Aparajita or Neelkanth) is named after its beautiful azure blue hue. When infused in hot water with lemon in it, this flower gives the famous blue color to the beverage. This tea has a distinct floral aroma that gives it an earthy and woody flavor, similar to green tea in some ways.
This super beverage is also a caffeine-free herbal concoction packed with antioxidants and is also rich in Anthocyanins, which are compounds responsible for its unique blue color. For this reason, manufacturers also use Butterfly Pea flower in cosmetics and as a natural dye for foods, drinks, and textiles.
The flowers are also commonly brewed into an herbal tea, often alongside ingredients like lemongrass, honey, and lemon. When the acidity of the Pea flower tea changes, the color changes as well. This quality makes the butterfly pea flower a popular ingredient among mixologists for specialty cocktails. Recently, the flower made its way into the cocktail world, where it's used to make Blue Gin.
According to the Journal of Pharmacological Reports, the Butterfly Pea flower is a common ingredient in rice-based recipes, such as Nasi Kerabu in Malaysia and rice cakes in Singapore.
Turquoise Trail Infusion Blue Tea
Ingredients: Pea Butterfly, Lemongrass, Moringa, Peppermint and Rose Petals
Blue Myriad Infusion Blue Tea
Ingredients: Pea Butterfly, Lemongrass, Moringa, Hibiscus and Rose Petals
Role of digital and social media in popularizing Blue Tea
Blue tea has been available in the market for long but now thanks to social media, food bloggers, and travel bloggers, these teas are very popular and are widely available for consumption at retail stores, supermarkets, and online marketplaces. They are regularly used by tea aficionados across the globe for their various health benefits too.
According to Verified Market Research, the herbal tea market was valued at $3289.67 million in 2020 and is projected to reach $4877.80 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 4.89 percent from 2021 to 2028. India is second only to China in terms of acceptance of teas that have been blended with spices, fruit bits, flower petals, herbs, and a whole array of botanicals.
7 Health Benefits of Butterfly Pea Flower Blue Tea
Some of the health benefits of Blue Tea are as follow:
1. Acts as a Paracetamol
Blue tea is believed to aid in bringing down a fever by dilating the blood vessels right beneath the skin. This would enable the air to cool the blood more easily.
2. Stress Buster
A high dosage of blue pea flowers has had beneficial anxiolytic effects in humans and has helped the body deal with stress.
3. Immunity booster and anti-inflammatory
The blue flowers are rich in flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory properties. They also help boost immunity.
4. Asthma healer
Blue tea can help give relief from cough, cold, and asthma, as it acts as an expectorant. In other words, helps clear the mucus from the airways, lungs, and trachea.
5. Boosts memory
Blue tea has garnered a lot of interest across the world and this can be attributed to the memory-boosting properties it has. Studies have shown that the Blue Pea flowers assist memory and brain function as they help increase Acetylcholine (a Neurotransmitter).
6. Reduces risk of cell damage
The rich color of blue tea indicates the high quantity of antioxidants in it. Antioxidants reduce the risk of cell damage, they are also known to slow down the effects of aging on skin and hair.
7. Anti-diabetic
Butterfly pea flowers help inhibit glucose uptake from food and thus, help treat type II diabetes. The benefits of having blue tea are not just internal in nature, they have a number of external benefits too, like for the skin and overall beauty.
Some of them are enumerated below:
- The tea is well-known for its anti-aging benefits, due to its high antioxidant content. This makes the skin shinier and younger from within.
- Blue pea flower is excellent for the hair too, as it contains Anthocyanin - a compound known to increase blood circulation in the head and therefore maintain a healthy scalp.
- The flavonoids present in blue tea may also stimulate collagen production, helping develop and maintain skin elasticity.
At Golden Tips stores, both physical and online, blue tea has emerged as one of our bestsellers. It has overtaken our previous hot-sellers and this trend is here to stay. We have introduced other flower blends too in our product portfolio like Chamomile, Hibiscus, Rose, Jasmine, Lavender but have given them an 'Indian Spin'.
