Chai For owes its existence to the true chai masters of India. It is well known that chai is historically rooted, if not ubiquitous, to Indian culture and that of greater South Asia. Authentic masala chai involves brewing specific strains of black tea and spices directly in milk or a milk-water blend. Similar to coffee, wine, or beer in the ability to craft uniquely flavored blends, chai is diverse with recipes varying by country, region, state, city, individual family, and even individual brewer. Even how, where, and when the ingredients are grown and harvested can impact the chai recipe. Yet Chai For exists within the context of the American chai product landscape and, to wholly understand our existence and our mission, it is important to understand the status of chai at-large in the U.S.

Outside of South Asia, chai’s popularity and influence has found significant prominence worldwide. Chai came to commercial prominence in the United States in the 1990s. Unfortunately, that brief history has been marred by culinary distortions that fail to capture the essence of real, authentic chai. In the U.S., chai often falls victim to commercialism, ingredient mis-use, cost-cutting, and linguistic misunderstandings that have yielded a largely bastardized version of Chai. The top selling Chai brands in the U.S. are chemically engineered, contain all sorts of additives, and are overloaded with sugar in the form of a boxed concentrate or a powder.

Many even have the name wrong. “Chai” directly translates to “Tea.” Thus, “Chai Tea” translates to an unwitting and incorrect “Tea Tea.” In some ways, persistence in mis-naming chai as “Chai Tea” is emblematic of the larger problem with chai brands in the U.S. It’s been made into something akin to its origin but, in the end, misses the mark.

Despite quality and authenticity concerns, chai has become ubiquitous with most cafes in the United States, is often one of the most ordered non-coffee items on a given café menu, is one of the most popular tea product in America, has become a massively popular coffee alternative, and has a strong foothold for customers in the retail make-at-home market.

You might ask, “If the masses in the U.S. love chai in this inauthentic, chemical form, why is Chai For on a mission to move people to drinking and demanding real chai?

This is a good question, and the answer is in the eyes of my customers. I see it every day. Virtually every time we give away a sample, sell a drink or Chai Kit, or someone sniffs the aromatic spices of our dry chai blend, their eyes – and often their words say – “I didn’t know Chai could be like this.” People are accustomed to chai that is what we at Chai For call “Sugary Milk Water (with a hint of Cinnamon)” But I know that people love our chai because at the center of Chai For are four core ideals: authenticity, real ingredients, bold flavor, and ease. When folks try our chai the first time, we’re often told “this is seriously the best chai I’ve ever had” and this is not a scientific hypothesis but I’m convinced it’s because their bodies, their taste buds, even the neurons communicating our flavor are reacting to our chai’s real, quality ingredients. I simply think that people’s bodies intutiively know quality. So, my answer is that Chai For is supremely relevant because there is an opening to change the chai landscape in America, allow people to embrace and respect its traditional roots, engage in healthier consumption, while giving them “the best chai they’ve ever had.”

Our customers aren’t wrong. At Chai For, our unique chai is bold and complex; they love it for its robust, floral, sweet, and spicy notes. This is why Chai For is on the precipice of launching a national campaign (more on this later) but we didn’t always start out with a national vision. No, Chai For was very much an accident. In truth, I was deep into a career with an NYC-based non-profit developing social emotional learning programming that was personally and professionally progressing in every way I had intended. During the remote-work days of COVID, I moved from NYC to Asheville, NC where I had found two things difficult: 1.) Finding a great cup of chai and 2.) making new friends. I had solved the chai issue by making my own recipe using raw ingredients purchased from a local Indian grocer. I was still eager to find a way to meet folks and, frankly, get out of my house as COVID lockdown eased. I thought selling at a farmers’ market might be a nice way to show people some great chai and meet interesting people! So, it was in the waning days of COVID lockdown that I started Chai For from virtually nothing. I used my relatively meager non-profit wages to do the basics of launching a small-scope chai company: I bought one pot and one ladle, went back to the Indian Grocer for more ingredients, bought a few hundred cups, and paid the first farmers-market fee. I even went DIY and built our unique Chai stand from wood – you can still see it on the early parts of our Instagram (@chai.for).

At our very first market. something special happened: we sold out. And that happened again, and again and virtually for every market thereafter. Somehow, without a business plan – or any plan at all – we found immediate success.

Soon, customers began begging us to make our chai available to make at home. We listened and introduced our Chai Kits; a simple-to-make kit with all of the ingredients that could make a great mug of chai. These Chai Kits have become a key product of our business.

Not long after that, we were approached by cafes that wanted to make our chai in-house. So, I introduced all-natural chai solutions for Cafes that competed in price and beat the flavor of those big, national boxed concentrates and powders.

Local stores approached us to carry our Chai Kits as a retail product. In turn, I created an all new wholesale program. We even became a fast-selling chai at that very same Indian Grocer where we had originally bought our ingredients.

We expanded our reach beyond Asheville and launched an online store to meet the demands of customers from other areas.

Truly massive events like Taste of Charlotte, with over 200,000 attendees, invited us to serve as the only non-corporate sponsor beverage provider. It was Chai For and Pepsi Products for all three-days of Charlottes largest food festival.

Other businesses approached us with creative chai-themed ice-cream, cheesecake, beer, and ginger-beer partnerships.

In mere months – Chai For had taken on its own life and I saw a future where it could become something more than I had ever intended.

As the path forward for Chai For became clear – the next big leap was to leave my job. This was no easy task. It meant giving up all the work I had done to get where I was in my field. It meant financial vulnerability. It meant working for myself, which I had never done. There was a lot at stake. I know something had awakened in me that I can’t say I didn’t know was there but I can say to that point in my life it had been dormant: every part of me loved every part of the dynamic demands of running a company.

Since then, we relocated production from Asheville, NC to Cincinnati, OH – a region of the country known for incubating food products ready to make a national leap. We are still fully in charge of our entire process. We source, blend, package, sell, and ship our chai. We remain 100% founder-owned and operated.

In Cincinnati, we’ve made unbelievable connections and with the help of Cincinnati’s Downtown Partnership, are moving into a 1,100 sq ft. production facility and café in the historic Over-the-Rhine Historic Neighborhood called The Chai Counter by Chai For. We hope this will open in Fall 2023. We are simultaneously in active pursuit of national retail partners and are scheduled to launch on Amazon.com by Sept 2023.

As we move forward into our national outreach phase, we’re ready to become the premier all-natural chai in the U.S. We have dreams of new products, offerings, and collaborations and we know that our product can transform how America drinks chai so long as we honor the tradition of chai-making and stay true to our core values: authenticity, real ingredients, bold flavor, and ease.

When it comes to establishing our company’s reputation, product quality reigns supreme. However, there’s one nuanced aspect that holds significant importance in reputation-building: our approach as salespeople. At the core of this dynamic are human beings – both us, the salespeople, and our potential customers. We’re all people who ultimately want to feel comfortable, cared for, and understood. Sometimes, salespeople’s quest for sales can lead to a loss of authenticity as we adopt desparate sales tactics from books or half-baked 3-step processes. Customers can see when you’re trying to “work” them – even if you don’t think they can. In my experience, staying true to myself has been paramount in reputation-building. While developing our sales skills can be valuable, preserving our unique voices and personalities matters most. I aim to present an authentic version of myself to customers, as it’s the most genuine way to interact. This authenticity extends to my handpicked team, allowing us to shine as real individuals. To a fault, I encourage my employees to be their authentic selves because our collective authenticty will lead to brand trust in the collective memory of our customers.Think of when you were in primary school and the teachers you remember most fondly. All teachers have a goal, an agenda. They are in some ways sales people. But the ones who stand out to us often do so because they connected with us on a human level. The treated us like human beings. Those teachers effectively build a “brand of trust” and that is how we remember them so fondly years later.