Setting up a tea party

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She might be only 29, but don’t let her age undermine what she’s set out for. Meet Ami Bhansali, a pretty, young entrepreneur who runs Chai Diaries, a premium tea label that she launched in New York recently and ships to customers all over India.

Ami worked with Hugo Boss and also had the opportunity to work closely with celebrities such as Saif Ali Khan, Sushmita Sen, Sania Mirza and Yuvraj Singh in her earlier days. She also won accolades in Integrated Marketing Communication, Starting Your Own Business and Event Marketing from NYU-School of Continuing Professional Studies.
So how did Chai Diaries happen? She explains, “Chai Diaries is a dream that resided in my heart for long. Spending summers at my family’s tea estates in the Nilgiri hills in South India, I was always drawn to the beauty of the plantations and the many secrets the wild-growing herbs held! It was my desire to share this experience through a product which appealed to all senses, to give a whiff of the romance I experienced.”
Getting candid on her personal life, Ami reveals, “Currently my personal life is completely intertwined with my business life. When I am in India, I am spending time with my family, friends and colleagues at ASB Consultancy. When I am in the USA I am shuttling between the East and West Coast, attending business conferences, meeting new people, and discovering new cities. I used to play a lot of basketball earlier. I enjoy reading biographies such as those of Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Howard Schultz. Like most girls my age, I enjoy partying. Any place filled with friends, great music and laughter is a party. Right now I am super excited to be in the same room as Howard Schultz for a conference in Chicago.”
Sharing more on her journey, Ami states, “I felt it was time to challenge myself by creating a brand of my own. I chose New York because I have been in love with the city ever since my first visit as a child. I get inspiration from travelling. Currently we blend our teas at our California office and showcase them at various trade events across North America and India. I travel to different estates to learn about tea farming and host interactive sessions such as a Pilates class followed by a tea drinking experience, collaborating with popular fashion icons. We are very active online as our target audience is young, hip, game-changing and curious.”
And how did she name it Chai Diaries? “Chai Diaries is a reflection of revisiting your passion. Borrowing lightly from our simple act of writing undeterred dreams in our private diaries, we often choose a different career path. But along the way, there is a calling — a feeling of revisiting our passion. Pausing, having a cup of fresh tea and re-starting on a journey we were meant to be pursuing. We started with mychaidiaries.com and retail in a few upmarket gourmet grocery stores across North America and have a private retail set up in India with exciting plans ahead. We buy our teas directly from tea-producing countries like India, Sri Lanka, China and others and then blend the leaves with fruits, botanical ingredients and all natural products, and sell in over 45 varieties in biodegradable pyramid tea bags.”