KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — The coffee scene in KL is booming with cafes popping up in almost every neighbourhood, to the point that caffeine lovers are spoilt for choice. In the midst of old school kopitiams and hipster cafes, there is a gap to be filled by another popular beverage like tea.

The Das siblings, Chironjit and Promita, hope to fill that gap with their online tea business Brew (www.brew.my). Their love for tea started from their own family’s daily tea time sessions.

“Our family cultivated the love for tea when we were young and we used to have tea time every day,” said Promita. Their mother who is from India brewed special tea concoctions for the family. Chironjit fondly remembers drinking ginger tea whenever he fell sick.

Once you have tried Brew's tea selections, you can order them in normal packages such as these. — Picture by Choo Choo May

Brew was started in July 2014 as an online company selling loose tea leaves. To promote their business, the siblings had a pop-up store at Pop, Jaya One. At that time they had seven to eight ranges of tea but that has since expanded.

Brew sources their teas and tisanes from all over the world, procured from a certified trusted supplier. “For the tea to be of a certain quality, we need to have the right certification,” said Promita. While searching for a supplier, Chironjit and Promita researched where to get the best teas that meet international food guidelines.

Every two months, they would order from the supplier and each shipment is about 100 kilograms. The loose tea leaves are sealed to maintain their freshness. They are then repackaged and sold by Brew. Each time the supply of tea dwindles, Chironjit and Promita will order accordingly.

“We see what people like and order based on popularity of the teas. Chocolate tea and floral/fruity teas like Blue Lady are popular among the ladies while men generally prefer black tea,” said Promita.

For the founders of Brew, tea is a new business and it is all about building rapport with people. During bazaars, they would let people try the teas and also share information about the different teas. Brew sells various types of black tea, green tea and rooibos.

The duo would test different flavours before deciding which ones to sell. In the beginning, they sold 15 to 16 types of teas but they have now increased the selection to 40 types. “The tea idea came about from my stay in Australia. There is an Australian tea brand called T2 that started out small. They used to have a very small space outside a university, then they expanded and became really popular. I also noticed that the tea industry was picking up in this coffee-based market. Tea is complementary to coffee and there are many health benefits associated with tea,” said Promita.

Brew offers black tea, green tea, rooibos tea as well as floral and fruity infusions. — Picture by Choo Choo May

Aside from the T2 brand, Promita also enjoys brands like the New York-based Spices and Tease, as well as Teavana. Growing up, she drank Ceylonese tea like Boh and Lipton. For Chironjit, his tea preferences are more related to family, as he prefers the tea his mother brews from tea leaves she sources from India.

Although Brew is now an online business, Chironjit and Promita also participated in various bazaars to promote the brand. Brew also offers tea as corporate gifts, wedding favours and sold on a wholesale basis. “In the future, we plan to open a tea bar where office people can come and enjoy tea,” said Chironjit. 

The newly-established tea business is mostly run by Chironjit as Promita is busy with her full-time job. He gets interns to help him pack and label the tea but he plans to hire full-timers to do sales and administrative work in the next couple of months. “They don’t necessarily need to have tea knowledge. We are willing to teach as long as they are able to approach people and sell at markets, offering them tea and suggest tea flavours,” said Promita.

The reason Brew sells tea in loose leaves is to maintain the freshness and quality of the teas as well as reduce the use of teabags. Surprisingly, people are so used to teabags that they actually ask Chironjit and Promita how to brew the loose tea leaves.

Brew sells the teas in quantities of 10 gram, 50 gram, 100 gram and 200 gram. If you use half a teaspoon per cup you can get 40 to 50 cups if you get the 50 gram sachet. So far, Brew’s customers are not limited to Malaysians and people also order from India, Indonesia and Australia.

“For new customers who do not have a chance to try the teas, we do sell them in smaller sachets for them to taste,” said Chironjit.

A 50-gram sachet costs RM25 on average when you buy from Brew. “We have seasonal flavours but we keep the best-sellers. The pricing also varies, during bazaars sometimes we give discounts,” said Chironjit.

So far, the response has been positive and Brew has a number of loyal customers. The start-up is at the stage where they want to get their name out there. “We want to build our brand name first. One of the things I’m considering to do is to get food bloggers to try our tea,” said Chironjit.

You can pick up smaller sample sachets of loose tea leaves to try from Brew. — Picture by Choo Choo May

Occasionally, Chironjit comes up with seasonal flavours that he customises and blends himself. Apple Raspberry was one of the customised flavours, which was very popular among Brew’s customers.

When asked if Brew will teach people how to drink and brew tea, Chironjit admits that he is not a tea expert. “We specialise in selling Western teas. If we were to go into how the Japanese and Chinese ways brewing and consuming tea, it would be too complicated.

“We are more informal and it is better this way because Malaysians do not have the patience to go through hours of a tea ceremony. We want to make tea something accessible. If it is not, people will not be interested in it. If they really like it and want to know more, they will really look into it. I feel that the market is not there yet,” said Chironjit.

For now, Brew is looking to expand their customer base by approaching cafes to serve their teas. However, Brew’s biggest challenge is to convince them to use loose tea leaves. “Cafes prefer teabags because it is faster and more convenient,” he said.