With new variations of tea entering the market, experts are excited and optimistic about the beverage becoming a favourite at cafes and bars as opposed to current favourite coffee
We Indians love drinking tea. Now, we get to eat it too, thanks to bubble tea. The latest entrant in the beverage segment has tea experts excited about what it could do to a rather tepid tea-drinking culture outside homes.
Tea connoisseur Madhav Sarda puts things into perspective when he says, ?While it will be difficult to give a figure to the actual number of tea cafes vis-a-vis coffee bars in India, I can safely say the number of tea bars is about 1% of the total number of coffee bars in India.? Dismal for a nation of tea drinkers!
But Sarda is optimistic about bubble tea. ?India has a long history of tea drinking. And with people these days preferring tea to carbonated beverages, new developments like bubble tea offer great potential for growth of the tea space. These are exciting times when the country?s tea industry is being influenced by outside developments,? he says. ?Bubble tea is a good variant and we certainly expect a niche segment to like it, for instance youngsters. Tastes are changing in India and with increasing incomes, people are open to new ideas and products, and tea is no different. Moreover, bubble tea adds a new dimension and variety to the existing types of teas already available in India.?
Bubble tea was launched in the country by Taiwanese brand Chatime, with its first outlet in India at the Metropolis Mall in Gurgaon in August 2012. It has since added four more outlets in Lajpat Nagar and Sarojini Nagar in Delhi, besides Chandigarh and Noida.
A humble drink that originated in small teashops in Taiwan in the 1980s, bubble tea?or boba milk tea?is slowly making inroads into the coffee-loving West. Most bubble teas have a tea base mixed with milk or fruit, depending on what variant one is making. However, the reason it?s called ?bubble? tea is the cluster of chewy tapioca pearls that can be found floating at the bottom of a typical glass of the beverage. ?Bubble tea is less of tea and more of a drink with milk, slush, ice, smoothie, fruit and flavours,? says Sarda, who is also the managing director of Golden Tips Tea. ?As you sip it, you will actually crunch into a chewy tapioca pearl. That?s the idea behind the ?eat your tea? concept. The most popular are bubble teas with milk, especially bubble milk green tea,? he says.
Even people at Chatime, which has more than 820 outlets worldwide, are upbeat. Says Nin Naqvi, head, marketing, Alchemist Foods, which runs the Chatime brand in India, ?Though we can?t share the exact sales figures, they are extremely encouraging. The bubble tea rage has taken over the global market, and we are now seeing the same in India. Seeing the increasing popularity of bubble tea in the world, we felt confident that Indians would also take to this specialty beverage. And that is precisely what we have been seeing since our launch. We have plans for 150 stores in India over the next five years. We will also be looking at franchise options to give Chatime a pan-India presence.?
This should come as good news for tilting the scales in favour of tea vis-a-vis coffee. Because, for a nation of tea drinkers, our most popular choice of beverage while dining out still remains coffee. ?Coffee, the way it is promoted, is more about aping the West. Due to the Internet and television, coffee appeals more to the youth, as big multinationals market it well. Tea needs to be brought into the spotlight so that the entire gamut of India?s population looks at tea as a modern health drink. This will result in the opening of more tea chains and boutiques in the country,? says Sarda.
Agrees Amit Maheshwari, operations head for India, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, an American coffee and tea chain: ?Coffee definitely sells more. It is difficult to make a good cup of coffee at home… good-quality beans are not readily available. Further, the equipment required for a good brew is expensive and requires a certain skill set to use it. Coffee contributes to almost 80% of the beverage sales at our stores whilst there is a 15% contribution from tea. We are a tea-drinking nation and have, over a period of time, got used to a particular style of tea. Some like it with cardamom, some with ginger, some with more milk, etc. So when you go out for tea, your expectation is always measured against your style of tea, and that is the reason standardisation is difficult as everyone has their own preferences.?
Sarda tells FE that the total branded tea market in India is currently valued at approximately R6,000 crore, and growing at a rate of 15% year-on-year. ?With increasing awareness about tea in India as a health beverage, the market size is set to double in the next five years,? Sarda says.
For the record, the annual per capita consumption of tea in India is approximately 235 grams per head compared with approximately 115 grams per head of coffee.
So we also ask Sarda what, according to him, makes for a good cup of tea? ?The concept of a good cup of tea is very subjective. People who are tea connoisseurs will generally have a favourite and they tend to gravitate towards that particular type of tea most of the times. Every now and then, they might consider enjoying another flavour, but they stick to their favourite. It is like waking up in the morning and reading your favourite newspaper,? he says, adding, ?However, the look of the tea, (the tea?s) liquor, aroma and the flavour are the top characteristics of a good tea. Of course, all the above are variables depending upon the type of tea in question (and personal taste).?