Fresh aroma
Ahmedabad’s tea-drinkers just got lucky, with the tea moods boutique in town.
Sujal Desai has always seen his uncle, Hasmukh Shah, go the extra mile when it came to creating tea products.
The young Desai watched as Shah sourced durable threads and paper labels for the tea bags, apart from the nylon, silk and paper. He says, “It is this attention to detail that is behind his success story.”
And Premier’s Tea Moods is indeed a success story. It began in 2007, when his uncle’s Premier’s Tea Ltd, a Kolkata-based tea export major, decided to start a series of lifestyle tea boutiques— called Tea Moods—in major cities of India.
Shah, the Chairman of Premier’s Tea, was born into an Uttar Pradesh-based Gujarati family. Shah did plenty of business overseas, especially with the Japanese. He came to realise that Indian tea in its pure form suffered from a lack of marketing initiatives.
Most Indian companies were exporting tea as a commodity; there was no properly established Indian brand in most foreign countries. Secondly, pure Indian tea was expensive, since it had to be cleaned overseas at a high cost.
As an Indian and a person based in Kolkata, with access to Assam, Darjeeling and the Duars teas of Northeastern India, Shah decided that this had to change.
Leveraging on the advantage of owning an engineering company, Shah put together a processing unit with indigenously-developed machinery by 1991, upgraded with inputs from Japanese tea importers. Between 1992 and 2002, Premier's built on their indigenous technology.
By 2003, they found that their capacity was very small compared to the business inquiries, orders and potential. To build on this, they needed more space and larger machinery.
They went about systematically studying machinery manufacturers in India, Japan and Germany, to find the ones that could suit their design ideas to create the kind of product categories that Shah had in mind.
While building on the manufacturing capabilities, Shah did not lose sight of the fact that exceptional packaging with good design and a signature style are essential for branding of products.
Their design team was told to create “soothing and attractive packaging” and to work in tandem with Premier’s marketing people to understand the concerns and preferences of the target consumers.
“It is only after they are satisfied with the look of the product will consumers be comfortable enough to sample the tea. The company believes in the consumer approach system as it also provides a method to receive crucial feedback,” says Shah.
The result of these initiatives is the colourful, slightly rustic look of Premier’s tea packs—in square and round metal caddies, metallic containers, Kraft board packs, Kraft paper packs, wooden chestlets, wooden minichest—with their tagline, ‘The Passion of Purity’.
Also included are the symbols for pure teas, following the colour coding of the Tea Board of India: green for Darjeeling, red for Assam and blue for the Nilgiris.
Today, the company is recognised for its different types of packaging, including attractive chests for gifting, and specially-designed caddies and chests for cafes and tea rooms.
Then, says Desai, “Having established a tea brand overseas, my uncle began to think of launching export-grade tea for quality-conscious domestic consumers.”
The idea that emerged from discussions was the creation of tea boutiques, rather than stores, where visitors can savour the tea, browse through an entire range of teas, get information about tea and advice about which tea category suits their palate, apart from also buying tea infusers and tea-ware.
And, thus was conceptualised Tea Moods, with boutiques at Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Jaipur. With its all-glass frontage, one can see the colourful tea packages along the walls at the Tea Moods outlet in Ahmedabad.
Says Desai, “For corporate and special orders, we offer the option of chestlets and other gift packs with the company logo or a personal message on it, provided the order quantity makes it viable to have such personalisation.” At the centre of the boutique is a tea table with lounge seating, where visitors can enjoy a cuppa.
Says Desai, “With increasing awareness, people have started looking at tea for corporate and personal gifting. Secondly, there is a niche demand for green teas, white teas for their health benefits. Thirdly, with lounges and coffee places having popularised iced-tea and mocktails as a lifestyle drink together with their coffees, consumers are getting interested in recipes for tea-based mocktails and drinks at our boutique. With the market opening up for lifestyle products, it won’t be long before buyers start looking at high quality tea for their daily cuppa too.”
Knowing your cuppa  Single origin tea Darjeeling: The delicate tea of the Darjeeling hills is among the finest in the world, but has a relatively small yield because of factors like altitude and sporadic rainfall. The aromatic Darjeeling tea brew is best had black, without milk or cream. Darjeeling green, oolong and white teas are also produced. Assam: Assam tea when brewed creates liquor with body, briskness, malty flavour, and a strong, bright colour. The first flush has a rich and fresh aroma; the second flush produces the famous ‘tippy teas’ – the golden tip that makes the tea sweet and smooth rather than astringent. Nilgiri: The teas grown in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, Idukki district of Kerala and other hill districts of Southern India is refered to as The Fragrant One. It produces dark intensely aromatic, fragrant and flavourful liquor. Blended tea English Breakfast: Full-bodied, robust and rich black, usually created from Assam tea, this tea is specially blended to go well with milk and sugar. Earl Grey: This is a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from fragrant citrus fruits. It is commonly available as black tea but now it is also possible to get Earl Grey green tea. Tea types Black: This refers to a variety of teas that are more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties. Black tea retains its flavour for several years, and so keeps well. Green: This is a type of tea made from leaves that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. It is gaining popularity because of its much-touted health benefits. White: This is the term for uncured and unfermented tea leaves. Much is being written about the health benefits of white tea over black and even green tea. Herbal: These are herbal infusions and tisanes that derive from leaves, berries, seeds. The plant’s natural juices and oils are at their best and most concentrated as their flowers begin to bud. Segments of the plant are picked, depending on the type of plant and the intended usage. The process of producing herbal blends should adhere to natural conditions from start to finish, which explains the tea’s inherent richness and flavour. |