India, a country that is always synonymous with tea, also happens to be one of the world’s major coffee producers. Despite its tea-loving heritage, India’s coffee culture continues to slowly evolve thanks to the changing consumption habits of the rising middle class, growing brand awareness as well as the emergence of specialty coffee startups. Specialty coffee, which provides customers with coffee freshly brewed per their preferences, is driving the growth of the Indian coffee scene. Moreover, the effort to build a dosmestic Indian coffee market is enabling farmers from the bottom of the supply chain to be connected to Indian consumers who have traditionally thought of coffee as a luxury item. Blue Tokai, named after an ancient South Indian term for the tail of a peacock, is a coffee startup that wants to popularize India’s vast coffee growing plantations and connect Indians to western style speciality coffee culture.  

In today’s episode of Inside India, Ben Hayward is joined by fellow coffee enthusiast and the Co-Founder of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, Matt Chitharanjan. When Matt and his wife, Namrata moved to India from the U.S., they missed drinking speciality coffee and began sourcing high-quality coffee from farms and roasting it at home. They soon discovered an immense customer base for speciality coffee. And as a result, in 2013, Blue Tokai was born. Blue Tokai’s vision is to bring great quality speciality Indian coffee to the mass affluent urban population of India. Over the years, the company has evolved and expanded its operations with standalone cafés and roasteries across the country. In less than a decade, Blue Tokai has roasted more than 1000 tons of coffee, served close to 3 million cups, from it’s network of over 50 cafes and remains India’s most fastest growing F&B start-ups. What started as a hobby back in 2013 has now turned into a thriving, fully fledged coffee business.