Caste, class, religion, and gender - chai has transcended all. In its ubiquitousness, the universally loved beverage is perhaps the only symbolism of an equal society; treating the single-origin-tea-loving intellectual from Pedder Road and the clay-pot-cha-sipping rickshaw puller from North Kolkata, the same. With time, the tea-drinking diaspora, too, has evolved and a highly aware set of patrons have emerged therein. For this sect, even chamomile is passé. But the education around tea began long ago.

At a time when Mumbai's tea culture was still largely dominated by cutting chai, with a few exceptions who ironically were importing Indian tea from England, ad man and director Prahlad Kakar and his team renovated the Tea Centre inside Resham Bhavan, in the late 1990s, such that it became a nucleus of stars and journalists alike.