A pinch of cardamom. A thread of saffron. A single mint leaf or shred of ginger. These were some of the notes that Brook Eddy, the founder of Bhakti Chai, first noticed in her tea when she travelled to India in 2002.
It was the strength of the flavors, and the people she met during her travels that inspired her to create her own chai recipe to pass onto her kids.
“I didn’t go for subtle,” Eddy said. “I went for super-power and decided to juice ginger and add a shot of ginger, black pepper and cardamom to the swirling black tea.”
After the tea gained popularity with Eddy’s friends and families, she was inspired to start her own business selling India-inspired tea. Thus, Bhakti, a name inspired by the devotion that Eddy encountered during her time in India, was born.
She wanted to “honor the parts of Bhakti related to service, and launched as a mission-driven company, but also to honor the other parts - which include friendship, prayer, listening, offering,” and more.
The company, based in Boulder, offers micro-brewed, fresh ginger chai with sustainably sourced ingredients.
“With our customers we don’t need to explain what fair trade means, what non-gmo means,” the company said in a statement. “They are already seeking out those ideas.”
The company is a B-corp, and has about $11.3 million in funding, per Crunchbase. Its most recent funding round of $2.2 million was in August, according to a Form D filing.
Currently, Bhakti offers a variety of products: ranging from chai concentrates to ready-to-drink iced chai products. In May, they launched a line of chai products that were built around cashew milk. Their products appear in places nationwide like Whole Foods, Safeway, Target, Natural Grocers and other independent retailers.
According to the startup, Bhakti focuses evenly on working with businesses that want to serve chai at their cafes, and tea-enthusiasts that want to buy a ready-to-drink product.
And its location has complemented its strategy and direction while growing new products.
“I think Boulder is attracting people who have an active lifestyle and (are) health conscious, and vote with their dollars by buying certain products,” the company said.
In recent years, the Bhakti team has seen Boulder become a “foodie hub” for healthy food. That environment has led the company to be a part of Naturally Boulder, a food association that works with 120 companies focused in on “natural products."
“It means that all of these different brands are trying to move together as a collective,” the company noted. “It’s what our products should stand for.”
Bhakti started over a decade ago, at a time when chai wasn’t heavily on the market. Now, years later, more and more taste buds are interested in the drink and its strong flavors. To some, that might mean competition, but to Eddy, chai’s rise of popularity is validation.
“Yes, chai is becoming more known and mainstream, but I think Bhakti being in existence for almost 10 years has helped bring awareness,” she said.
