Tea is the most consumed drink after water. The tea market is growing rapidly in the western
world and drinking habits and lifestyles are changing; with youngsters who associate tea
with health benefits driving this trend.
Tea Trails is the first chain of tea cafes in India that offers a carefully curated range of the
finest teas from around the world alongwith suitable tea accompaniments, justifying the
theory of tea pairing. It further specializes in elaborately tea-infused food menu; the
signature tea infused dishes include the Burmese Tea Salad, Tea Marbled Eggs, Tea Infused
Thai Bowl and more. They serve gourmet teas from around the world and have an exquisite
range of teas from hot to cold and normal to extravagant. Offering an experience of almost
80 varieties of teas with various blends and added benefit; the offerings range from White
tea, Green tea, Oolong, Herbal and Black Tea. Tea Trails also offers Bubble teas, like the
Taiwanese Bubble Tea and the Tapioca Bubble variant.
Speaking about tea brewing process, Kavita Mathur, Co-owner and Tea Guru says, “Brewing
tea is an ancient art which is seldom paid attention to. We, at Tea Trails, understand the
importance of brewing and steeping high quality loose leaf teas to perfection, without
which, the experience of drinking tea cannot be enjoyed to its fullest. “
Tea Trails looks to expand its network with over 500 outlets within the next 5 years. India is
the second largest tea consuming market in the world but the Tea Café market is practically
non- existent. Tea Trails aspires to cater to this latent demand and be the category creator.
The Indian tea industry and the beverage café market are currently valued at Rs 19,500 Cr
and Rs 1800 Cr respectively. Tea Trails operates in this spaceand has a first mover advantage.
Promoted by a group of entrepreneurs with successful track records, in November 2013,Tea
Trails has embarked on an interesting journey of changing the rules of the game in the Café
space. Tea Trails currently operates successful outlets in Mumbai and have perfected the
business model. The brand has now embarked on a pan India expansion strategy that is a
combination of company owned and franchised outlets. As part of their business model they
have granted Master Franchise for Andhra, Telengana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka& Rest of
Maharashtra territories. In the current year the brand plans to open 100 outlets across the
country. In the initial phase, the focus markets are Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Delhi NCR and Ahmedabad.
“The large part of the expansion strategy is based on Franchise network development. This
business model is asset light with high ROI. Tea Trails has already raised first round of funds
from few HNIs & are in the process of raising further investment to support expansion
plan,” says Uday Mathur, co-founder, Tea Trails.
Tea Trails also proposes to merchandise select blends of teas that would be available at
premium retail stores and niche online portals, apart from the Tea Trails outlets.
As Lewis Carroll rightly says, “Yes, that’s it! Said the Hatter with a sigh, it’s always tea time”