Indian Food, Chai & Soft power

This article is divided into two parts, focusing on doubling-down on exporting Indian food as a means to export Indian Culture & why we need to premiumize Chai (tea) and make a lifestyle brand around the same

Food = an important medium to export culture

Introduction

Indian food has been enjoyed by people around the globe, one of the only mediums with presence among both the diaspora audience & the non-diaspora audience, and has effectively been a way of exporting the Indian value system & culture to an unsuspecting audience in a non-commercial manner.

Importance

It’s very well documented that food is the easiest way to export your culture, and Indians have done a fantastic job at that.

People can easily distinguish Indian food from non-Indian food, sometimes even misattributing certain foods which were not fully ours, but still giving the credit

• Shahi Paneer → Indian

• Butter Chicken → Indian

• Tandoori Chicken → Indian

• Biryani → Indian [debatable, but still often (mis)attributed as Indian]

Challenges

Despite our best efforts, among the non-diaspora audience, Indian food is often seen as a delicacy, or a once-a-week meal like Butter Chicken, Biryani, etc. Cuisines like Sushi (Japan) fall in the same bracket.

This is in stark contrast to something like Ramen (Japan), Tacos (Mexico), Hamburgers (arguably Hamburg, Germany).

Indian food faces the following problems:

• Low frequency

  • Often relegated as a delicacy & indulgence

    • Why?

      • Non-diaspora exposure to Indian food is limited to heavy dishes like Butter Chicken which one cannot consume everyday. Just doesn’t make sense.

• Shrouded with misconceptions

  • Messy

    • Only to be eaten by hands

    • Difficult to eat (gravy, etc)

  • Not portable

    • Due to lack of awareness, the limited choices known by non-diaspora often include dishes like Butter Chicken, thus acting as a hindrant for on-the-go or relaxed consumption, offered by dishes like Ramen, Tacos, etc

• Lack of awareness & exposure; lack of curation & promotion

  • Ask a non-diaspora what Indian food is like, they will mention the following:

    • Butter Chicken

    • Biryani

    • Tandoori Chicken

  • To reiterate, there is a lack of lighter Indian cuisines which Indians actually consume on a daily basis, like:

    • Poha

    • Daliya

    • Idli

    • Dosa

    • Besan Chilla

• Lack of promotions

  • Lack of Indian Chefs cum Media Personalities

  • Indian food is “not cool”

• Lack of QSR Brands serving Indian food (think Taco Bell)

Opportunities

• Hub of ghost kitchens cooking “authentic”, light & healthy food, and delivering the same to health-conscious non-diaspora, capitalizing on the following value propositions:

  • For repeat business

    • Healthy

    • Tasty

  • Hook & one-off

    • Indian (Exotic)

Conclusion

Indian food is the ace up our sleeves which we have not capitalized on; our diversity is our moat, and we must utilize the same to increase physical touchpoints among non-diaspora, and convert them to be more Indian day-by-day.

Lifestyle brand for Chai

Introduction

Since a month or so, I’ve been pondering why Chai seems to be dying among the U25 audience.

I hardly find the folks around me drinking Chai, it’s always just Coffee, and something it irks me.

That being said, I am guilty of the same, and I somehow find myself belonging to a group of elitists with the mentality of Coffee > Chai, often looking down on the beverage as a “gareeb’s beverage of choice.”

Maybe this observation regarding the declining consumption of tea is just me projecting my dislike towards the drink, but I strongly feel that is not the case.

Challenges

• Low-brow association (like Hindi)

• Lack of adoption by U25 (like Hindi)

Opportunities

There is a massive whitespace for people to consume a hot & arguably healthy and tasty drink, other than caffeine beverages, and a premium lifestyle brand (think Starbucks for Chai) focused on Artisanal Tea, Indian values would be perfect for that.

A co-working hub where the next generation Indian elite & builders focusing on building in India, for the world would be attracted to.

Ofcourse, Ideas are cheap, execution is hard, but I really see an opportunity here.

(If this Idea is so great why are you not doing it?

• I don’t have the time to build a business of this scale; this will take a long time to set-up & scale

• I don’t have the resources

• I don’t have the track record to prove to anyone that I will be able to build a QSR-ish brand)

This can be achieved beautifully by imbibing Indian values, culture & food and drinks, and getting started in the foreign markets, thus anchoring the experience to a premium brand like Starbucks.