TATA Global Beverages is starting its first of kind Cha Café in Bangalore.  This is one of the places among four others where TATA is running the pilot.  They plan to capture the customer feedback and consider the performance, before opening across multiple places across the city & the country.   I was invited for the launch of the café where some of the senior’s executives part of TATA Global Beverage department shared the store behind coming up with the Cha.  I got an opportunity to interact with the TATA officials and taste some of the refreshing tea and delicious food.

Background

TATA is one of the established and trustworthy brand in the country.  The group has business in various sectors of the market.  They are present in automobile, steel, software, hospitality and many other industries.  Tata Global Beverages, the world’s second largest tea company decided to evaluate the out of home beverage space with the pilot launch of its first tea café Tata Cha.

They surveyed the tea-drinking habits across various cities in the country and decided to start by having the first outlet in Bangalore.  This is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the country which has mix of young and old.  They scouted for multiple places and finally picked up a spot in the busy Indiranagar 12^th Main.

Keynote Address

The event had Sushant Dash, Regional President – India, Tata Global Beverages.  He said, “At Tata Cha, the essence of our offering is rooted in being authentically Indian. It is about bringing to our consumer the warmth of tapri chai in a modern environment. The balance lies in creating an experience which is premium and aspirational yet, real and authentic.” and many more things.

He mentioned that in our country, everyday consumption of tea is higher than that of coffee.  To capitalize on this trend of Tea consumption, TATA launched Cha in Bangalore.  The plan is to run this outlet as a pilot along with 3 others across the country and evaluate the feedback.  Depending on the performance of the pilot outlets, they may plan to open across the country.

TATA also employed an experience designer in Patch Studio to come up with the Interiors.  It is quite critical to make it appealing to young and old.  Foot falls to the café will also depend on the ambiance.  Customer need to consider this place to be the best hang-out place.  As part of the launch, Ipsit Patel and Rika Chaudhar from Patch Studios were present to share their concept behind the interiors.

Food & Drinks

There is elaborate menu comprising of some wonderful selection of teas and food items.  The food items have been chosen such that they can be paired well with the team.

Green Tea

Wide variety of healthy teas like Cucumber Green Tea and Sugar-free Tangy Tamarind that can be paired with Oil-free Soya Kababs.

Local Favourites

Dilliwali Kanji, Masala Shikanji and Meetha Paan are few flavours that are loved by local in the region.

Masala Shikanji might seem to look like the lemon juice with some spices but after taking a sip, I realized that it was tastier than the Shikanji found anywhere across the town.

Cold Options

There are plenty of options including Rasmalai Milk Shake, Peach Iced Tea and Chili Guava Ice Slush.

Chilli Guava is my personal favourite as it has unique spices and guava blending together to give a great taste.  This is a drink that is hard to resist after taking a sip.

Hot Tea

The hot tea range includes Sikkim tea, Masala tea, Nimbuda Black tea and many more.  Tea that is grown at some of the places have the place name (Darjeeling, Assam, Sikkim, Munnar and others) as the prefix.  These are called the ‘Single Origin Tea’.

Food

This menu includes regional recipes which are quite popular.

• Butter Chicken Khichdi in the North to Creamy Veg Stew in the South
• Indigenous recipes such as Chatpata Matar Kulcha from the North
• Dal Pakwaan is another forgotten delicacy that is available at the outlet

Many of the offerings from the beverage and food menu are about reviving lost Indian recipes that evoke nostalgia in the minds of customers.

Overall Experience

It was a good Café launch in which we heard from the Regional President from TATA, Sushant Dash and the design team.  All the drinks that I tasted including the Hot and Cold varieties were good. My top pick among the drinks was the Chilly Guava because of its unique taste.  There are plenty of food items to pick from and every one of them I tasted were good.  It is hard to pick a personal favourite.  I am sure this Café will become very popular in Bangalore.

My rating for this store would be at 4.0/5.

Opening hours

8 AM to 11 PM

Address

2985, 12th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore

Select pics of the goodies given by TATA Cha.

Select pics of groupies taken during launch.