TEA DRINKING is like a religion in India. A religion that, interestingly, binds people together rather than segregating them. Life-altering decisions are taken, cricket matches are discussed and dissected, weekend plans are made and remade, mothers-in-law are bitched about and sometimes job interviews are also conducted over ?a cup of tea?. In fact, taking tea breaks during office hours is considered, quite often, more sacrosanct than the humble lunch break.

Indians drink tea in winters, in the sweltering heat in June, during the monsoons, and in spring. And everybody has his or her own preferences: some like it milky and sweet, some black and sugarless, some go for ginger tea, while others swear by the health benefits of green tea. And who can forget the iconic masala chai?

But drinking tea is the easy part. Procuring one?s favourite blend is not. In fact, till recently, one had to depend on the local grocer to get one?s favourite white tea or rely on friends travelling abroad to bring with them a packet of one?s favourite blend of sencha. Departmental stores stocking an exhaustive collection of teas in India are few and far between, even in the metros.

It is this gap that dedicated online tea stores in India are looking to fill. These stores stock a variety of teas?including gourmet ones selectively sourced from various parts of the world?that are available at just a click of the mouse. You can choose from a wide range of black, green, oolong, white, herbal, flowering, rooibos, decaf and organic teas, among others.

Besides the variety, these online tea shops score over dedicated tea stores in the neighbourhood with products that are fresher than those available at any brick-and-mortar store. ?It is difficult for physical stores to compete with the sheer variety of teas that an online store can provide. Also, our teas are much fresher. A good number of customers prefer online tea stores for the number of options,? says 30-year-old Kaushal Dugar, the CEO and founder of Teabox, an online tea store that has, over the last couple of years, delivered more than five million cups of tea to over 65 countries, including Chile, Argentina, Siberia and Fiji Islands, besides India.

Agrees World Tea Room?s founder Bala Sarda, ?Our variety, prices and convenience of ordering help us score over brick-and-mortar stores. We also offer ?live chat support?, where tea experts help customers choose a tea from our collection.? World Tea Room, a recent entrant in the online tea store space in India, stocks over 100 gourmet leaf tea blends sourced from countries like China, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Germany, Kenya and Vietnam, besides India. Their teas are priced approximately in the range of R200-R3,000, depending on

the type.

Another advantage is the complete absence of middlemen. ?From leaf to cup, we work sans middlemen. We procure our teas only from manufacturers,? says Gaurav Saria, CEO, Infinitea, a Bangalore-based online tea shop.

Similar to most online ventures, the ?cash on delivery? (COD) option is the most preferred mode of payment for these tea shops and, as Sarda of World Tea Room would like to add, a very important part of the Indian e-commerce environment. ?In fact, 70% of our orders are placed through COD,? he says.

The delivery time is usually between three and five days. And what?s more, with every delivery, one can get free samples of new teas. ?We also plan to launch an annual subscription programme called ?World Tea Voyage? under which we will deliver 10 new teas to our subscribers every month,? says Sarda. There?s also the option of tasting before buying. ?Customers who know what they want just go ahead and place their order. But for those who want to try a tea before they buy it, we offer a 10g sample of the tea,? says Dugar of Teabox, which has teas in the price range of R300-R7,000.

That?s not all. For those who like to know their teas, and not just drink them, there is detailed information about the teas on the sites. ?Beneath every tea?s description, we give our customers a quick history on it. Which plantation it is from, when it was picked, etc. Also, we provide suggestions on how long to brew it, how to drink it and when,? says Dugar.

The health-conscious need not worry, as the sites have that aspect covered too. ?On our site, apart from tea details and brewing instructions, we also list detailed health benefits of each tea,? says Saria of Infinitea.

But a big challenge is educating people about the vast variety of teas on offer, as a majority of Indians, apart from the chunk of those who know their oolongs from their rooibos, don?t know the different exquisite varieties that exist. How do these websites reach out to them? ?We plan to hold tea-tasting sessions and workshops to involve tea lovers in the process and inform them about the world of teas. Word of mouth is also very important and referrals have helped us reach out to new customers. We are working on a proper customer referral programme. Till now, we haven?t focused on advertising. But we plan to launch a digital marketing campaign very soon,? says Sarda of World Tea Room.

?The best way is to educate. That happens through our offline tea rooms and the tea-tasting sessions, which we conduct in-house and on clients? premises,? says Saria of Infinitea.

There may be challenges but online tea retailers swear by the tremendous potential of online tea retail. They see no reason for it to not gain a foothold in India. Says Sarda, ?Gourmet tea is a multi-billion-dollar industry in countries abroad. The acquisition of Teavana by Starbucks for $620 million is an indication of the kind of potential the industry has. Even though it is at a very nascent stage in India, we will build our momentum as we go forward.?

Meanwhile, traditional tea retailers also seem to be going the online way now, even if it is just to garner initial attention in the Indian market. Madhu Jayanti International, a tea exporter, launched its brand of tea bags, TE-A-ME, earlier this month through what it calls ?the world?s first online tea party??a platform for tea lovers all over India to interact and share their tea stories and choices with each other.

?Given that our target audience is most at home in the digital ecosystem, the launch was a purely digital event. Tea lovers, food bloggers and tea connoisseurs were invited to participate. On registering through email, they were couriered a gift pack containing an assortment of TE-A-ME teas and infusions. In the party on June 6, guests participated by brewing their favourite TE-A-ME flavour in their respective locations and posting pictures and comments on their experience on social media. The party was attended by 654 tea lovers across Facebook and Twitter, with a spillover on Instagram as well,? says Sumit Shah, executive director, Madhu Jayanti International.

The brand also announced that it would be sold for the first two weeks exclusively through online sales on http://www.teameteas.com, with no shipping and delivery charges during this period.

Namrata Rao