Everybody in India loves chai; our mornings start with it, and we’re all chai addicts. If you make a list of things that unite this nation into one, we’re pretty sure that chai will appear on that list too. It’s so deeply integrated into our lifestyle that it has become a daily need. From rich to poor, everyone enjoys tea in India.
Interestingly, everyone has their own unique way of enjoying tea. Some drink it with cookies, some with Parle-G biscuit, whereas there are some who’d not drink it without toast.
In India, you’d find a standalone tea stall at every corner of a city, but now it seems that the competition has moved to the USA as well.
An American lady, Brook Eddy got this idea when she came to visit India in 2002. She went back to the USA and started Bhakti Chai which has now become a global brand. It took her 14 years to become what she is today.
Take a look!
Brook Eddy still recalls her 2002 visit to India that changed her life.
Brook’s journey of selling chai from the trunk of her car in Colorado (US) to creating the Bhakti Chai empire is refreshing, and something that every chai lover should know.
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It was a ‘purely desi chai’ that inspired her.
We all get inspiration from somewhere in our lives for Brook it came when she took the sip of a desi chai during her 2002 India visit.
After going back to the US, Brook searched almost all the Colorado cafes that could offer her the same taste, but it was her bad luck, and she couldn’t find one.
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She didn’t give up, and decided if she cannot find it, she’s going to create it on her own.
In 2006, Brook decided to make a concoction and named it Bhakti Chai (Fondness for Tea). She then stuffed gallons of chai (tea) in the back of her car and started selling it to people.
In 2007, Bhakti Chai got its official website that helped her to reach more consumers.
Eddy left her full-time job and turned entrepreneur. The website proudly claims, “Bhakti Chai’s fresh ginger and spicy masala flavour has gained a cult following.”
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Soon the product that started from a car trunk found its place on the cafe shelves in unique mason jars.
In an interview, Brook Eddy shared, “I’m a white girl born of hippie parents in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and then raised in Michigan, right? I shouldn’t have this pulse for India, but I do. I love the chaos and vibrancy. Every time I come, I’m introduced to something new. It’s real.”
On her website, Brook mentions that…
…the company got its first significant boost when she found her first investor. It helped Brook Eddy buy a ginger press, hire two full-time brewers, and begin to focus on sales and business infrastructure.
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What’s astonishing is the fact that she was taking care of her two children side by side.
Brook is a single mother of two children. In 2014, she was among the top five finalists in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
As Bhakti Chai’s sales rose, Brook also started to donate. Brook has made donations to organisations that are working for global causes.
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