Can’t Do Without Your Cup of Tea? Now Try Green Tea & Other Blends From Startup LaPlant
Douglas Adams, an English writer, humorist and dramatist, once said, “A cup of tea would restore my normality,” and I bet our country relates to this statement at a very large scale. Most Indian households wake up to tea and generously consume the beverage through the day. Nobody can challenge tea’s ubiquitous influence on our lives, after all we are the second largest producer and consumer of tea in the world. Tea makes the world go crazy without it - people cannot work, interesting conversations will not happen and maybe it will also result in a shortage of aspirin, if we are deprived of our daily cuppa.
Green tea is a comparatively new segment in the Indian tea market and growing at a very fast pace. With increasing awareness of different health benefits that green tea offers, Prakash says the market for the product is about on a 60% YOY growth. Laplant Beverages, a Mumbai based startup is now offering fine quality green tea and various blends of it.
Started a year-and-half back, LaPlant is a venture by Pankaj Prakash, who was earlier heading marketing for Ola Cabs. He joined hands with Amod Singh, to co-found LaPlant Tea Company. Pankaj says, “We offer a wide range of specialty tea to satiate different palates of our tea loving nation. We are focusing on providing various blends of green tea, flavored tea and herbal infused tea. We want to bring a green tea revolution to India and make it a much healthier tea drinking nation.”
The essence of a good cup of tea is in its aroma which is hard to preserve in tea bags as it gets subdued when it comes in contact with the air. Keeping this aspect in mind, they are focusing on the material used for individual tea bags as well as packaging to protect the much needed aroma and flavor. Pankaj says, “We procure fine tea leaves from selected tea gardens in India and also from the auction houses. We have blending experts from UK for perfecting the blend mixes and amounts and pay extra attention to our packaging and tea bag materials.”
Today LaPlant are a team of 14 people, present across four metros and a few Tier 1 cities.
They are selling through a mix of modern trade, conventional retail, online platform and institutional sales and Pankaj says they have achieved a turnover of Rs 1 crore in the last six months. LaPlant is looking to aggressively expand to Tier-II and other Tier-I cities in coming few months.
All the tea lovers, visit their website to know more.
