HYDERABAD: Is there a reason to have a steaming cup of chai, Iranian chai? For many Hyderabadis, the question itself sounds preposterous. Iranian chai after all is the very essence of the city. But then, strange as it may seem, this indispensable ingredient in the cultural fabric of Hyderabad is slowly but surely losing its flavour.And pushing the cup from the many chai addicts is another T! No prizes for guessing what’s this latest T. The Telangana agitation, coupled with rising prices, has hit the ubiquitous cafes hard. From Khairatabad to Lakdi-ka-Pool and Abids to Secunderabad, tea sales have dropped drastically in the past 3-4 months. Going by the number of cups, the sales have come down by around 750-1,000 per day or almost 10-15%.Not to discount the reduced demand for accompanying snacks and other food items. “Like every business in the city, even the popular chai has lost its consumers in recent months. But there is little we can do. With less people visiting the city and many government and private establishments working on reduced workforce, this is an expected loss,” reasons Hyder who runs a cafe at Khairatabad.His cafe had been enjoying incremental growth for the past 30 years. However, this year he has seen his graph dip. With a cup of tea costing Rs 7 in most cafes, each of these stalls face a loss of more than Rs 7000 per day, or a total loss amounting to more than Rs 2 lakh per month from tea sales alone.For cafes like Omega Cafe at Lakdi-ka-Pool, which only serves Iranian chai, the loss is indeed a big blow. Even wholesale dealers of tea powder are feeling the heat. Abid, who manages the Asian Tea Co. at Secunderabad has been incurring a daily loss of more than Rs 1000 for the past 2-3 months. “The daily sale of Assamese or Darjeeling Strong Tea (used to brew Iranian tea), is 5-6 kg lesser than the amount sold a few months back. As 1 kg of Iranian tea powder costs anything between Rs 200 and Rs 220, the drop in sales is a hefty loss for us”, he explains.According to him, as long as the RTC buses keep off the road, his fortunes aren’t going to change. If anything, he expects further fall in demand.For Mirza, who runs the Blue Sea Cafe near the Secunderabad Railway Station, it’s not just the agitation but also the rising cost of essentials like milk and tea powder, which is to blame for the declining sales.Fareed, an avid tea drinker, couldn’t agree more. He has been forced to reduce his daily tea intake to 3-4 glasses, down from 6-7 a few months back. “The high price of tea, up by a rupee from last year, and the further expected price rise will only make me cut down further on tea”, he laments.“Around 40 litres of milk is required daily to meet the current demand for tea, while just 1 litre is required for coffee”, points out Nagesh, a tea stall owner at Secunderabad. This gap is set to widen in the coming days, since coffee costs more than tea, he adds. Despite this downward trend, tea in any variety (Iranian or otherwise), continues to top the popularity charts by a mile, ahead of other beverages such as coffee and black tea/coffee.
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