Atulit Chokhani, CoFounder at The Tea Shelf

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Atulit Chokhani: With travel, comes inspiration. A trip to a family run vineyard in South Africa which was marketing stellar wines got me thinking, why can’t I do the same with tea?! That is how the idea to form a tea brand started brewing, which refined with time. A little over a year later, we launched The Tea Shelf, to further explore our love for tea.

Today, we have served over a million cups, showcasing 109 varieties of exquisite teas, and reaching customers in the USA, Netherlands, Guatemala, UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia, amongst others.

Great Companies: What are the various services provided by The Tea Shelf

Atulit Chokhani: Our product categories span a range of garden fresh teas in loose leaf form as well as pyramid tea bags, and a variety of curated Tea Gift boxes. The tea range includes Black, Green,Oolong and White Teas along with handpicked single estate teas, as well as hand crafted flavored teas. While our range of teas is on a constant rise, we are gradually expanding our newly launched range of tea accessories.

Tea as a product has often been picked up as a unique gifting option; hence our gift boxes attract a lot of wedding and corporate orders. Amongst the Tea varieties, Green Teas and our flavored blends are very popular. The Chamomile Mint and Lavender Rosemary Tea amongst the flavored ones and the Virgin green Tea are some of the favourites. We also provide consultations to many tea entrepreneurs and white labeling as well.

Great Companies: What makes The Tea Shelf different from hundreds of other tea brands?

Atulit Chokhani: At The Tea Shelf, we’re offering a tea drinking experience, beyond the ordinary. Handpicking and brewing fresh, quality tea is at the heart of everything we do. We’re curating a selection of leaves from the tea heartlands to serve you the best of Indian teas – Straight from the Estates to your Cup! High quality tea meets its match in exotic, natural ingredients; to produce blends with the most sensational flavours and aromas.

Our strong Tea background puts us at a step ahead, be it while sourcing garden fresh teas from the finest tea estates in India or curating in-house, exotic, hand blended teas with a creative mix of natural infusions and quality teas.

Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?

Atulit Chokhani : The F&B sector is a growing market, and we have seen a spurt of tea brands in the last couple years. This has proved to be a healthy competition for us, and helps us test our limits to provide better quality, service and experience for our customers.

Having said this, the last year with the pandemic has been full of challenges as well. The supply chain has been disrupted, delivery times have increased by over 30%, and furthermore, due to limited production of quality teas, the price for teas itself has also increased substantially. Working with a limited workforce and ensuring their safety has also been a huge challenge, while maintaining high quality and hygiene standards.

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for The Tea Shelf?

Atulit Chokhani : We have been growing stronger every year, and are looking at bringing new products and experiences on our shelf. We have recently launched our Pyramid tea bag range which we are looking to expand further. Our tea accessories range is already in the pipeline, and should be launched soon.

Going ahead, we are looking to explore tea tourism, as well as enter into the offline space with our conceptual tea cafes.

Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Atulit Chokhani : Honestly we as a brand & personally myself are far from being able to answer this question “ but if there is once piece of advice i would like to give it would be “ Pick a career which is passion and continue to pursue it till you feel you have done enough for it to succeed or fail “