Siblings Rakesh Kumar and Surendra Kumar quit their private sector jobs in Chennai to set up a marketing agency for heirloom varieties of rice in Tiruchi in 2019. But their enterprise — Eshun Spot — has been making waves online recently for an entirely different reason.
For this modest eatery situated past the railway crossing en route to Udayanpatti from KK Nagar has been serving tea made with camel milk sourced from Rajasthan since December 2021, much to the delight of the city’s foodie vloggers.
The camel milk stall was an addition by Mr. Surendra, the younger of the two brothers. “Earlier, our cuisine was known for its herbal infusions. Now, tea — with leaves, sugar and milk — has become a big business even though the quality of the milk is doubtful. We found camel milk to be a nutritious alternative to what is being sold as cow’s milk today. But it is not something that would appeal to the public immediately. So we thought of making tea with it,” he told The Hindu.
Eshun Spot sources its milk from the Kumbhalgarh Camel Dairy in Sadri, Rajasthan, which also retails under the ‘Camel Charisma’ brand. “We receive deliveries twice a week via the Railways in cooler boxes. The milk is pasteurised and frozen at source. Once it reaches us, we unseal the consignment and freeze it again at -4 degrees C,” said Mr. Surendra.
With a shelf life of 90 days (versus one and a half day for cow’s milk), camel milk has a slightly salty aftertaste. The tea is sweetened with organic cane sugar, in keeping with the eco-friendly ethos of the store.
The restaurant uses at least 90 litres of camel milk per month, and also distributes approximately 60 litres to customers throughout Tamil Nadu. A cup of camel milk tea costs over ₹100 at the store; allied products like cheese and ghee are also available.
