India is a tea drinking nation, no doubt. Most Indians drink atleast 1 cup of tea every day, as compared to coffee, which is not just a more premium crop but is also relatively expensive, difficult to brew and is not common to be served in every household in the nook & corner of India.
Tea has been grown in India for several centuries now, while coffee as a crop in the country is no more than three centuries old.
While Cafe Coffee Day was among the first along with Barista to set up cafes all over India over two decades ago, tea was largely confined to be a beverage prepared fresh at home or at restaurants or at neighbourhood shops and eateries along the roadside.
The country is split between what is a better beverage to have – coffee or tea. And within Coffee, the conundrum always is, is it the freshly brewed South Indian variety of filter coffee or the packaged instant coffee which is an import to India from the West after the World War 2.
And within Tea, the chatter about which one is better – the tea freshly brewed at home or the ones made at roadside shops or the ones served by Tea Chains similar to cafe chains.
Recently, the High Commissioner of Singapore to India, Mr. Simon Wong shared a tweet about his experience having a tea at a posh tea outlet.
The branded outlet served him “Chai” in an earthen cup and charged him INR 169 (USD 2) which he was not too happy about.
To this, Nitin Saluja, the Founder of Chaayos, where the High Commissioner had sipped the beveraged replied, apologising for the poor experience the expat had at his outlet.
Nitin invoked the deep friendship between both the countries and invited Mr. Wong to have a cup of tea with him. Mr. Wong on his part, appreciated the prompt response by Nitin Saluja and thanked him for the same.
What followed were hundreds of tweets – funny, articulate as well as on-the-face ones by several people.
One user asked the company to conduct mystery audits to ensure the taste and consistency of tea was well maintained while some other posted a completely unrelated tweet.
Another user gave a perspective of what INR 169 can get.
Several users reacted to Mr. Wong’s tea advising him to enjoy the tea served at roadside stalls.
Another user was critical of Mr. Wong’s background, citing Singapore to be one of the most expensive countries in the world and that he should not be judgemental about India. https://x.com/sginindia/status/1867872715786330522?s=61
Finally, Mr. Wong bowed down to the beauty of India, and acknowledged that he was overwhelmed by the torrent of invitations from so many people who invited him to have a homemade tea at their respective places.
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