"Tandoori Chai Startups - The Boom and The Decline"

Tea vendors along the highway pit stops cannot be regarded as an extension in the modern-day fast food culture of Pakistan. In my opinion, they existed long enough to become a part of the scenery. The tea itself isn’t a rare commodity in the sub-continent. Going through the pages of history, one finds its origins in 19th Century through East India Company. Now the question that pops up in every rational mind is how a product that has existed in this region for more than two centuries certainly saw a surge in its demand and that too with the potential to create new business ventures for the modern-day entrepreneur?

           To get a better idea, we need to dig deeper into the fundamentals of this trade. Food is one of those sectors that hasn’t been deeply affected from the recent economic downturn. In fact, the cultural shift in the subcontinent towards fast food enabled the entrepreneurs to successfully envision new ventures that ranged from take-aways to high end restaurants offering exotic cuisines from around the globe.

However, tea wasn’t a product that made it to the front page in any of these. Reasons included the easy-to- make recipe and common availability of numerous brands having various origins. Lower margins on the final product were also key in tea not being prioritized on the menus. The phenomenon entrepreneurs failed to account for in their analysis was that ordinary products never took the market by storm and created abnormal profits. To woo the public, the rudiment is to experiment. Experiment again and again till you land upon something that is quirky yet acceptable enough to create a deep- rooted craving. And that’s exactly was the formula that converted the “day to day” tea to into the exalted Tandoori Chai.

Tandoor being the centuries old vertical clay oven is being commonly used to bake the subcontinental versions of daily bread wasn’t uncommon to say the least. The other key component was the use of clay cups. Surprisingly clay utensils were mainstream in our region prior to the advent of steel utensils and the takeover by ceramics in later years.

The tea was prepared through boiling high-quality tea leaves extract in water along with milk. It was then simmered in a pan over a gas stove and stirred continuously for a period long enough to give a homogeneity to it. Finally, before serving the tea, the clay cups kept in the heated clay oven were literally bathed with the boiling tea multiple times to blend the two aromas to their core. Finally, the hot liquid giving an earthy aroma was served in brown clay cups to address the aesthetical requirements as well.

For a product that simple yet popular enough, the entrepreneurs needed little money to invest. Get a makeshift kitchen, an outdoor sitting area and you are ready to roll by lighting up your neon. Having a roadside setup in the urban hubs where people have a curiosity to experiment with their taste buds with things that also don’t go hard on your pocket, it was destined to generate some sort of initial traction. From the point of first sale onwards, the whole trick was in the taste. If the first sip is good enough to woo the customers then sooner enough, queues lined up and the sitting areas had to be expanded to accommodate everyone in the busy hours. With low costs and significantly higher prices than an old school tea vendor, these ventures turned out highly profitable in the short run. Menus were printed, LEDs were installed and newer flavors and variations were introduced within months.

Despite all the success, a fairy tale ending does not exist for every startup and every entrepreneur. The venture that was started with such a simple product and minimal investment could not be patented for exclusivity. Consequently, upon seeing this window of opportunity, other ventures with similar names and highly identical products started sprouting in every locality and major city. The flavors that were developed with authenticity by the pioneers were now copied ruthlessly.

           The second and most predictable disadvantage faced was the change in weather. Hot drinks such as chai could be labelled as one of the go-to drinks in winters but for a major part of the year, when outdoor temperature soars to 30?C in the night and the extreme levels of 45?C in the daytime during summer, the attraction of going out for Tandoori Chai was long gone. People preferred sitting in the luxury of their homes with their ACs turned on. Soon, the sales started declining and the ones who didn’t have enough stash to go through this seasonal decline hung up their boots.

           But, in the words of Joseph P. Kennedy, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” In the recent years when the bigger brands of hot coffee faced difficulties in sustaining their sales during summer, they reworked their product portfolio and introduced chilled drinks and shakes. The Tandoori Chai startups need to come up with a similar plan. Even though the low-cost startup meant that they cannot offer an air-conditioned and covered seating area, what they offer are products that are better weather-aligned to. Offering takeaway and delivery services for short distances or affiliating themselves with an up-class restaurant could also be a key in reviving their business. I would conclude by quoting Dale Carnegie that “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all”.