The ubiquitous tea shops of Kathmandu

‘Chiya khanu bho?’ (Did you have tea?) is the Nepali hello. Most people begin their day with a cup of tea. You must have tea when you are visiting someone. Tea is a staple at meetings and other gatherings. A little bit of ‘chiya kharcha’ speeds up official work. Tea is a huge part of our culture, and local tea haunts have always been conversation hubs, where people gather to discuss politics, the economy, and everything else under the sun. Cashing in on this social pull of tea are numerous cafés where tea is the main focus. Several years ago, Kathmandu saw a proliferation of coffee shops with a new establishment opening up every other month or so. Today, tea shops are all the rage. Nitesh Bhandari, the founder of Mr. Chiya, a quaint little place serving tea and a few other drinks like lassi and lemonade, says he started the café two months ago despite the looming economic crisis because ‘people will always drink tea’. Business, so far, has been promising and Bhandari already has plans to open a few more outlets in the future.

“Nepalis love tea. They don’t need a reason to drink tea. People might want to cut back on their coffee consumption but they will always say yes to another cup of tea,” says Bhandari. Mr. Chiya’s outlet in Shantinagar, Kathmandu, sees a lot of regulars from the area. Bhandari says they come to discuss work, catch up, or get a few minutes of rest during a busy day.

Chiya Ghar in Kumaripati, Lalitpur, is usually packed from 10 in the morning to noon. It’s mostly college students who come to have a cup of tea or two before heading home, says Nirmal Thapa Magar who has been working there for a year. Their bestsellers are ‘Matka Chiya’ which has nuts and dried fruits, and spices like clove and cardamom infused ‘Masala Milk’. “People sit around chit-chatting and drinking tea. It’s a lively atmosphere,” says Magar. This is true of the other three outlets of Chiya Ghar located at New Baneshwor, Putalisadak, and Pepsicola in Kathmandu. The outlets open from seven in the morning to eight at night and the busiest hours usually start from two in the afternoon. “People don’t just drink tea. They socialize over it which, I believe, is why it’s so popular,” adds Magar. However, that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when only a few of Kathmandu’s elites and the privileged class drank tea. In the 1800s, a Chinese emperor gifted a tea sapling to Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana. His son-in-law Gajaraj Singh Thapa had the sapling planted in Illam in eastern Nepal, thereby establishing the country’s first tea garden. Currently, there are more than 160 tea gardens in Nepal, and over 17,000 farmers engaged in tea cultivation. In 2021, Nepal exported $24.3m worth of tea, becoming the 30th largest exporter of tea in the world. Nepali exports tea to mostly India, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the United States. In the fiscal year 2021-22, Jhapa was the largest tea-growing district in Nepal with 10,500 hectares under cultivation according to the National Tea and Coffee Development Board. Rajesh Regmi, founder of Dari Bhai ko Chiya Pasal in Sankhamul, Kathmandu, says Nepal is a tea-drinking society. He says he started the tea shop three years ago as he saw a good business opportunity in the sector. “It also doesn’t take a lot of investment to open a tea shop either,” he says. The returns, he adds, are decent. Those who frequent the place vouch for its popularity. Dari Bhai ko Chiya Pasal is always crowded, they say. So is The Chiya Spot in Kumaripati and Boudha. Or Ghainte Chiya in Ekantakuna. The places that serve tea enjoy steady business. There isn’t a time of the day when these places are empty. There are always a few customers. Sujan Shrestha, manager at The Chiya Spot, says youngsters spend hours at their outlet. With a daily visitor count of around 200, the café has around eight to nine varieties of tea. Their specialties are nut tea and chocolate tea. But a lot of people prefer to stick to regular black tea and milk tea. “Nepalis take their tea differently. Some like it sweet while others like it strong, without milk and sugar. You could say everybody has a type,” says Shrestha who works at the Kumaripati branch of the outlet. People who come to The Chiya Spot know what they want but they are also intrigued by the different varieties that are available there. Since even the most expensive of their teas doesn’t cost more than Rs 200 for a cup, people don’t mind trying new flavors. Shraddha Shakya, 22, an engineering student, who drinks at least three cups of tea daily, says she is fascinated by the burgeoning of tea shops in the city. She has been to a few of them and says they all have lovely setups. Unlike local tea shops where you step in, have a cup of tea, and get out, you can actually spend a few hours in these cafes and get some work done while indulging in some good tea. But as a self-confessed connoisseur of tea, Shakya says she wants to try them all out before settling on a good one to visit regularly. And with a new place popping up every now and then, she says she’s spoiled for choice. “It’s hard to find a good place to sit and do your work. Coffee shops are expensive. But tea shops are moderately priced and now there are just so many to choose from,” she says. Bhandari says tea shops and cafés are good businesses because tea will always be relevant and important in our society. Though Mr Chiya serves coffee too because “they don’t want to ostracize the occasional coffee drinker”, people mostly order tea. Shrestha of The Chiya Spot says nobody ever asks for coffee and they don’t serve it either. Magar of Chiya Ghar agrees and says coffee shops serve just one or two types of tea, that is if they serve tea at all. So, it makes sense for tea shops to exclusively sell tea as well, he says. Café operators say that tea sells round the year, though sales are slightly more during the winter season. But that doesn’t mean business wanes in the summer. “We have a ‘chiya khadai kura garum na’ (let’s talk over tea) mindset and that’s the reason behind the success of tea shops in the city,” says Regmi.