Tea Junction: Filling the Emp(tea)ness of our Lives

Tea filling emp(tea)ness

As Indians, tea is an essential and very quintessential part of our lives.

To put it into other words, it is a necessi(tea) to us (bad pun IK).

As they say, there are two things that reflect what the culture of a society is.

One is what people wear and the other is what people eat. For the latter, the inclusion of tea into our daily lives is an indication of what tea means to us.

For any mood, any occasion, chai comes to the rescue to make things better.

Tea is so good that in it, the Britishers found an alternative to gin as a beverage.

Tea is so good that we are ready to encroach ecologically sensitive for tea plantations.

Tea is so good that Anu Malik decided to write a song on it.

In the past few years, the so-called tea and coffee culture has been brewing up across India. For coffee culture, the popular show F.R.I.E.N.D.S should be thanked.

The culture around tea is, however, an Indian realization and subsequent catapulting into a new cult around the fanhood of tea.

While earlier the generic tea was already a household thing and people did consume it three to four times a day and it is the same story today as well, but there’s greater romanticism around it. With such romanticism, new entrepreneurship opportunities have popped up. Many tea outlets have been mushrooming which are now providing authentic adda spots for real life F.R.I.E.N.D.S. 

Tea is LIT in BBSR

In Bhubaneswar as well, this deal is LIT. Among with many, this sort of tea venture is sphere headed by Mr Drimple. This name may not be familiar to many. Well, he is the founder of Drim group. Still no idea?

He is the man who has provided the taste of “Sabse kharab chai” to the people of Bhubaneswar. Many might have guessed by now. For those who haven’t, Tea junction is the brainchild of Mr Drimple. 

So grab your cup of tea and head into this article which is based on the exclusive interview of the man, the myth, the legend behind Tea Junction, by the Delik House.

The interview was with a backdrop of a hustling and bustling Tea Junction outlet.

Twadda Chai Chai, Sadda Chai Haye Haye

The story started 7 years ago when a person already involved in a business observed the nuanced way of taking tea in earthen cups in Kolkata and Delhi as compared to paper/glass cups in Odisha.

Struggle, unlike Ananya Pandey

To test this idea, Mr Drimple started a small counter given the fact that he did not have much appetite to invest and he wasn’t sure if this idea was going to work or not, and adding on to that, he was just out of college so a bit financial insecurity was hovering. 

But that didn’t deter him from striving for excellence and he stood where he was and he worked hard, promoted his store by networking well, and then built up on that further expanding his business. 

It might look all shiny from top but the hard work that went behind it is not talked about. There was a time when he himself had to do everything starting from making tea, working day in, day out with his blood and sweat, leaving his paycheck job and focusing solely on this business.

The Road Ahead (Not the book written by Bill Gates, but the path thought by Mr Drimple)

When asked about his plans, he said he is planning to cater to all the sections of the society with his tea because tea is something that everyone loves but can only afford as per their purchasing power.

In the last six years, he has built six outlets and he’s planning to build a tea junction outlet in every 10 to 20 kms range just like petrol pumps, cause why not!?

Tea is the fuel for humans. Tea Junction has expanded to other districts like Puri, Rourkela, Balasore etc. Rourkela outlet has already started functioning and we would delightfully recommend our readers to visit Tea Junction for adda.

Ye to Experience x 100 ho gaya

When asked about learning experience, he stressed upon customer interaction and taking their feedback because it’s the customers who run the business and not the owner.

Just as how they say, “It takes a whole village to raise a child,” it does take customer base to run a business. The fact that customers spend a total of Rs 300 as compared to Rs.100 in other tea outlets.

Sabse Kharab Chai!?

Moving on, during the interview we all decided on having tea, and we observed something disturbing to be on the menu.

It was “Sabse Kharab Chai”. Out of curiosity, we ordered that tea only asked Mr Drimple the reason for this name. He narrated about his past experience of a train journey when he spotted a tea seller shouting “sabse kharab chai” and people were buying that tea out of curiosity and that probably the reason we went for that one.

TBH, “sabse kharab chai” was fabulous. It was quite on the expensive side and was only sold in malls where Tea Junction outlets were there but it’s worth the money. 

Success is around the Corner. Just Hold On.

Mr Drimple being in his youth and our core readers being in that age group, we asked him for a piece of advice for the readers. He gasped over this ongoing start-up culture that the youth is running for.

He was saddened by the fact that young minds with great ideas were not sticking to their ideas and business because of not getting profits immediately. He said that it’s a very wrong approach towards start-ups.

The two things according to him that the youth should do is to have faith in themselves & their ideas and just stick around.

Because consistency and persistence are the keys to success. Before anything, they must focus on their studies and choose their paths wisely and later stick to it. Because instead of giving partial efforts in multiple projects, if they give full effort in one project, then they’ll be successful.

Before ending the interview, we asked him for some tips for tea lovers on behalf of tea junction. 

Pro Tips

He had few things to say that are listed down:

• Won’t recommend drinking tea with an empty stomach because it might cause acidity.
• Don’t overdrink, because an excess of anything is not good.
• Tea is otherwise is a nice beverage and is an antioxidant as well.
• Do visit your nearest Tea Junction for some quality Tea.

The End

And that pretty much ends our interview. 

We wish Tea Junction and Drim Group a heal(tea) future.

And if you are in Bhubaneswar or Cuttack or Rourkela or Balasore then jump on to your nearest Tea Junction outlet and drink tea because the only thing that has made us stay on this planet is Gravi(tea)

Sayantan Mitra

Sayantan Mitra writes about society with touches of polity and politics. His main focus is on providing informative content with a unique perspective, but never at the cost of providing just mere entertainment.