Your morning chai is about to get a luxe makeover. The Good Life Company (TGL Co.) will ensure that with their exotic tea blends like Strawberry & Champagne, White Velvet, and Fountain of Life.
Founded in October 2016, TGL Co. is a relatively new player in the small (but rapidly expanding) luxury tea market. The founders, Bhuman Dani and Shariq Ashraf, both have MBAs under their belt and previously worked as strategy consultants at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in London, Melbourne and India. Both are tea aficionados, though their motivation to bring tea blends to India came from different parts of the world. While working in London, Dani walked into an East India Company store (a chain retailing fine foods), where he encountered speciality teas, an experience that opened his mind to different brews and blends. He then apprenticed with the renowned tea specialist Jane Pettigrew and learnt about different varieties of the beverage and the influence of botanicals in creating blends. Meanwhile, Ashraf came across Tealosophy while travelling through Argentina, where his meeting with the founder and master tea blender Inés Berton inspired him to work bring some of his experiences to India. A serendipitous BCG alumni meet brought two together and TGL Co. was born.
On studying the premium tea market in India, the duo realised that access to speciality teas is limited unless you travelled abroad. “This prompted us to conduct extensive R&D, which resulted in world-class blends with the finest tea leaves and exotic ingredients from around the world”, says Dani adding that their company sources its teas from India, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. Each type is acquired from where it grows best. So the white and green teas are from Japan and the Yunnan and Fujian provinces in China; while Oolongs come from Taiwan; and the black variants are brought from Darjeeling and the Uva Valley in Sri Lanka.
It’s not just the high-quality product that sets TGL Co. apart. The natural ingredients that go into the blends are a standout; ranging from the familiar (orange peel, rose and ginger) to the exotic (mallow petals from Western Europe, schisandra berries berries from Eastern Russia and thistle flowers from Scotland). The tea leaves and the botanicals are flown to Europe where master blenders work with culinary experts and botanists to create speciality tea blends.
TGL Co. launched with 24 variants, which are divided into three premium collections. Connoisseur features seven teas, including Golden Mist (a delicate yellow Darjeeling), Milk Oolong (a creamy, buttery Taiwanese oolong), and Temple of Heaven (hand-rolled Chinese green tea ‘gunpowder’ pellets), among others. Then there’s Wanderlust that includes teas designed to bring the romance of new places to your cup with evocative names like Geisha, a mix of Chinese and Japanese green teas blended with sesame, ginger, rose, bamboo shoots, and schisandra berries imparting a robust flavour and immunity-enhancing properties.
If you have a sweet tooth you will appreciate the Dessert collection blends, from the decadent Irish Cream (Sri Lankan black tea blended with cocoa nibs and non-alcoholic Irish cream flavouring) to the tropical Pearl of the Caribbean (white shou mei tea from China, flavoured with mango, pineapple, barberries, and mallow petals).
As of now, TGL Co. products are available online and a few select restaurants. Dani and Ashraf plan to make their teas available at food stores, and will also launch six new variants in September.
Alternatively, you could visit the company’s first experiential store at the Sofitel that offers assorted tea gift boxes and handy accessories like teapots, infusers, and tea sets; as well as an array of in-house bites, both savoury and sweet.
TGL Co. Tea Salon,Sofitel Mumbai, BKC. Teas start at Rs. 599 for 50 gms.
