Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. When it comes to foreign policy, the US has sought to cultivate a deeper partnership with India, and if you think about it, it really makes sense. There are about four point eight million Indian Americans in the United States. That's according to some Census Bureau data. Indian Americans account for twenty percent of
the nation's Asian American population. Overall, two thirds of Indian Americans are immigrants, thirty four percent are US born, and around half of Indian Americans live in four US states California, Texas, New Jersey, and New York numbers. Carol, I know well. I want to give a little bit of a said because these guys are thinking a lot about that community, reaching out to the community. Our next two guests, We're welcome and delighted to have with us, actor comedian Hassin
Minjohn Minaj. Forgive me Naj Minaj.
This is all good, well live, We're alive here on Bloomberg.
Husain Minaj along with Anyi Sanyal, who co founded Kolkata Chai Company with his brother. Welcome, Welcome, welcome, so great to have you here with us. Anya, I want to start with you because tell us about Kolkata and our producer CC has been down to the Soho location says it's incredible, very good. You have two in New York City. Tell us about how it all came together.
Yeah, so five years ago, my brother and I decided to do the craziest thing possible, which is bring authentic chai to America. We grew up being able to travel back to India a lot, and you know, New York City, you can find anything you want to eat and drink, but it was really hard to find a good cup of chai. So that's where we started. We opened six months before the pandemic. We bootstrapped our first cafe location, which I don't recommend, But five years later we are
at three locations. We just brought on, you know, one of the more generational talents in this country to join the business, and we're super excited.
How how did you get involved in it?
So funny enough, I had heard about the cafe for a long time. Getting a great cup of chai is kind of a somewhat of a secret in our community. You talk about where you can get a great cup. Heard about the cafe over in Nolita and then funny enough, my wife put me onto it. I get back home, I open one of our drawers and it's full filled with KCC. Seriously, yeah, She goes, have you had Colcutta chain? And I go, yeah, I've heard about it. Is it the real deal? And it became Bena approved and therefore
it became Hasan approved. And then I went down to the location. Their their location. They're celebrating their five year anniversary this week. But I went down to the Nolita location and I saw the community that they've built. They now have three cafes, and of course they obviously have the incredible DTC business and they've built this amazing omni
channel platform. And me and you know, Annie got to chatting, and a lot of times, you know, celebrities, we get asked to participate and hey, you should endorse this product. And what they'll do is they'll they'll use your name and likeness and they'll white label you with some commodity tequila sneakers T shirts and that's great.
Or you like drink it on the Patriot Act, sure, yeah yeah, show yeah.
Or you talk about the Samsung GALAXIESZ Full three by Frizon five G the fastest five network available. Right, I've done that commercial, but this is different. This is something where I genuinely loved the brand. I loved what they had been building, and I wanted to authentically tell our
story through Tea. Is one of the largest markets that's growing right now, and getting a great cup of chai has been something that in our community we've always wanted and they really cracked the code, not only just from their brick and mortar business, but the fact that they broke the code with the massolid chie concentrate. So when I was having that great cup of tea at their location in Nolita, I was like, wait, this same cup can be here in New York City. I can have
it in the Midwest. You know, you can have it wherever across the country. Which is which was?
Like?
That was?
That was.
My good friend Kritty Gupta used to make me chai and bring it into work, and then unfortunately she was transferred to London. So now like, I'm in the market. What is the secret to making it really truly authentical?
What's the coca cola recipe?
Yeah?
I wish I could.
No.
The secret is is my brother, He's the head chef and he's figured out the perfect blend of tea, spice and a little bit of sugar to get that sweet and spicy balance. We sourced all of our tea from legacy tea estates in Assam in India. So this is where one hundred years ago they planted t two hundred years ago they started planting tea, and so all of our product is coming from that region. So we're talking about the most authentic, you know, unfiltered product that you can find.
What Paris is for fashion, I would say Assam is for tea. Would you agree with that?
Honey?
How big is the market? I have a daughter who loves it. Was in Tanzania, brought it back, loved it, loved it, loved it. So tell me how big the market is and tell us a little bit about the business. Yeah.
So in the US, the package tea market is about a fifteen billion dollar category, but it's growing slowly because tea is a little bit sleepy. However, you have these modern formats like macha, which is actually growing at a ten percent kagger and so we see ourselves as that next iteration of macha you mentioned, you know, the growing Asian American population in this country, and that is fueling this need for people to want to have the real thing.
We don't want to go to you know, the takeout spots, to the fast food spots. We want that real, authentic from the source product. And so that's really where we're excited about chai as a new category and our business. So we've grown three hundred percent year over year, so we are on a rocket ship right now. Revenue opline revenue, and that's accelerated by our direct consumer business and our e commerce product.
So we do is that where most of the businesses, and that's where the.
That is where most of the revenue is YEP. So we use our brick and mortar locations as community building and product introduction to the market since Child's relatively new, and then we accelerate that growth on direct to consumer. And so we have a best in class chai mix which is like a tea and spice mix, and we do a liquid concentrate product which Hussin alluded to as well, and you can make chi in thirty seconds at home, So we're going to get you right.
That's but what you guys were talking about was exactly the problem that they solved. Hey, I had a colleague that put me onto this great cup of chi. You know, my daughter came back. He gave me this great cup of chie. And the difficulty has always been is how do you pack a package and product this great experience that you had somewhere in Tanzania or somewhere in Delhi or Mumbai or in Assam, and how do you get it to the break room?
Yeah, that's you don't want to go to Starbucks and get the chai te latte.
I'm not.
I'm not here to throw it on any other places. But but but what cacc has also done, which is historical, is they're the first storefront location for a chai cafe. So this this thing that is different. Yeah, that's that's that has a deep resonance in our culture. It was usually relegated to like a side item that you would get at a restaurant. But this is like a true brick and mortar storefront and an omni channel of business.
What do you do to grow it? So what's the plans? Is it more stores? Is it you bring him on to grow right?
Or do you also like it ends with us?
It ends with us.
Take a cup of.
Tea and yeah, yeah, yeah, number one movie at the box office.
But also like bringing it into other big retail.
Yeah, no, you nailed it. I think right now our growth is happening on to its consumer and e commerce. So that's really where we're dialing in new product formats, you know, new ways of advertising and telling that a story. I think having huston, you know, generational storyteller, bringing Chi to mainstream America through that type of format, through that pop culture format, that's what we're really excited about. And then to your point about retail expansion being in grocery stores,
that's the next step for us. We want to be accessible to all Americans.
For me personally, it was about a healthier caffeine alternative to coffee. No caffeine, there's no caffeine, but you know, yeah, not to get too scientific, but there's l fianine in it, which is almost like a like a cleaner, kind of healthier sort of kick that you get from chai. So also for people who were if coffee's giving you a little bit of a rumble in the tumble, it's it's
it's messing with your tummy a little bit. Chai is a great alternative to that, and so For me, I think people really want the real thing and they want a healthier alternative to coffee or espresso.
And do you give did you give something to Blake Lively? I mean you passing it on to people who aren't Indian you want to me? To me, chai fundamentally is about community, family commiseration. It's like intrinsically linked to joy and being together and so like. To me, the X factor to me was why isn't this having it's yerbamate or macha moment?
And I think it really is about to have that.
All right, this was almost perfect. It would have been perfect if you had brought us a cup.
But did you want it that we could have plugged that.
I'm just saying, Hassin minhaz and anis Sanyelle, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Cooledkatta Chai company. This is Bloomberg