Chinese logician Lao Tzu famously said: “Tea is the elixir of life.”
Indian chai enthusiasts appear to stay through this adage. No surprise India, the second biggest producer of tea in the world, is likewise the world’s biggest customer of the beverage.
According to a record through Eon Market Research (EMR), India consumed around 1.10 million heaps of tea in 2019. The tea market is predicted to develop at a CAGR of 4.2 percentage and 1.forty million heaps of tea is predicted to be ate up with the aid of using 2025.
Reason sufficient for severa startups to try to faucet the opportunity.
These encompass Guwahati-primarily based Aromica Tea, that’s mixing precise health and wellness in their variety of teas. Founded in 2018 through husband and spouse duo, Ranjit and Dolly Sharma Baruah, the startup gives 30 tea blends that comprise fitness benefits of herbal herbs and elements.
Aromica Tea was first released with 5 tea blends in the course of the India International Tea & Coffee Expo held at Kolkata in 2018. The tea startup now gives approximately 30 tea blends, every with its very own flavor, character, and fitness benefits. Popular types encompass, chamomile tea, tulsi green tea, blue tea, the patent-pending bhut jolokia tea, saffron tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, moringa tulsi green tea, and turmeric tea.
Ranjit has twenty years of experience in tea plantation, tea tasting, and tea production whilst Dolly brings 14 years of experience in the tea industry.
“Aromica Tea believes in selling health thru tea. We have used our huge experience, backed through research, to create particular and famous blends of tea. We use herbal elements which have been historically utilized in each family over ages,” Ranjit, Co-founder and Director, advised in an interview.
The co-founder says the startup is involved in growing merchandise that cater to numerous needs, together with health, weight loss, pores and skin care, and boosting immunity. The goal patron is aged between 20-65 years, with a big percent of them women.
“Aromica Tea was began out in a two-room office in the outside of our house in Guwahati with an preliminary funding of round Rs l0 Lakh,” Ranjit says.
The director says Aromica sources tea leaves from small-sized tea plantation proprietors in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh as such plantations produce tea in small batches. It additionally lets in them to assist farmers access a platform to promote their produce. The tea leaves are then mixed with herbal elements in-house to growth their dietary price and flavor to expand a brand new tea product.
“Polyphenols in tea own antioxidant, antiviral and anti inflammatory properties; they modulate cleansing enzymes and stimulate immune functions. We combination with herbs and herbal elements which includes chamomile, butterfly pea flower, tulsi, ginger, rose, and peppermint to growth the fitness benefits,” he provides.
Speaking about starting off in Guwahati, Ranjit explains that the startup blessings as Assam is one of the most important tea-generating states in the country and the city’s logistics infrastructure allows them supply special teas from throughout the state.
Aromica’s merchandise can be bought on-line thru its website and third party ecommerce platforms, together with Flipkart, Merricart, and MyGALF. He provides that customers can also place orders thru WhatsApp. While deliveries are free inside Guwahati, the goods are normally shipped to different towns thru courier services.
The tea merchandise are to be had in 50gm or a hundred gm packs and price among Rs 250 and Rs 600.
“We have 60 percentage repeat clients and more than 1,100 clients. Apart from on line sales, we also are available at about 12 retailers in Guwahati. We run a distinctiveness tea café in the city, JUST TEA, in which we serve greater than 60 varieties of tea and offer sampling of various teas to clients to pick out from before buying,” Ranjit says.
The bootstrapped startup has been decided on through IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, Kolkata, and Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, for incubation.
The tea market has numerous players innovating and growing new merchandise. Aromica Tea faces opposition from different tea startups which includes Organic India, Karma Kettle, Tea Box, Tea Shelf, and Vahdam Teas amongst others.
The director believes that Aromica merchandise have an area over others due to its modern blends which includes bhut jolokia tea (tea mixed with ghost pepper, a kind of hybrid chili pepper) and Rudraksha Tea.
Speaking about destiny plans, Ranjit says the tea startup pursuits to amplify its footprint to Australia earlier than Christmas this yr and is likewise making plans to release in the UK and North America. Making merchandise to be had in 5,000 retailers throughout India and growing seventy five tea blends is likewise at the anvil.
Aromica is likewise seeking out grants and funding to scale up operations.
