The
Yogic Chai Story...a little long, but quite entertaining ;)
I guess that it all started back
in Summer 2006 when I had the opportunity to travel to the foothills
of the Himalayas in India to meet and spend time with my spiritual
teacher, Maha Yogi Pilot Baba.
Walking in the streets of New
Delhi , it is not uncommon to hear Chayee! Chayee! from either
a chai vendor walking with a few thermos or from a chai stand.
Indians love Chai!
Since my only experience with
chai tea was your typical starbucks like chai, I was not very
interested in trying it.
I went to the train station to
catch my train to Kathgodam, a small village in the foothills
of the himalayas.
8 hours later...It mush have
been about 6-7 am and the train had come to a 15 min stop. I
decided to step out and stretch my legs. Not even 5 min. later,
a little boy approached me and all he kept saying was chayee!
chayee! as he tried to persuade me to buy a cup of chai from
him.
I could not say no to his sparkling
eyes or to the smell of the spices that were coming from the
cup. The chai was totally different from what I had experienced
in coffee shops in the US. It was so delicious!
At my Guru's
Ashram, to my surprise, masala chai was served every morning
and it gave an opportunity for all of us to connect with each
other and share stories while enjoying the wonderful flavors
of a good cup of masala chai.
When I came back to the U.S.A.,
one of the many things I was missing from India, was that morning
cup of masala chai, so I went to my local health food store
and bought a few different blends to try.
They all came in packages of 18-20
tea bags and neither one of them satisfied my craving for true
masala chai. Since they all came in tea bags, I thought perhaps
I should try to find some blends that came in loose or bulk
form.
To my surprise, there were not
that many companies offering loose chai and the ones I tried,
I was not very impressed with the flavors.
Note: None of the blends,
including the tea bag blends were bad, they just didn't taste
to me like the masala chai I had tasted in India, which is what
I was particularly looking for.
My search for Chai continued for
a few weeks until I met Prem Prakash & Ambika Gibbs, founders
of the Green Mountain School of
Yoga in Vermont, also known as Kailash Ashram.
As I was talking to Prem Prakash
about my experience in India, out of nowhere he asked me "Do
you drink Chai?" to which I replied "Oh, I miss that
real cup of chai in the morning" and he said "wait
until you come visit us in Vermont. Ambika makes the best chai
on this side of Rishikesh!"
Few weeks passed, but it didn't
take long before I made my way up north to visit Prem Prakash
and Ambika. I could not wait to taste her Chai.
I arrived in the morning at their
home/ashram where I was greeted with a warm cup of masala chai...Oh
I can still remember that smell ;)
Prem Prakash was right! Finally
my search for a good cup of masala chai was over. Ambika's chai
had everything I could remember tasting in India. It had a rich
black tea flavor as a base and a tasteful, well-balanced kick
from the spices, which did not included black pepper, just like
what I tasted at my Guru's Ashram in India.
It was after meeting Ambika that
I started making my own blend, using what she had suggested
as the base.
I started serving Chai to my students
that came to the Yoga classes at the studio I used to own in
Warwick, NY. I got some great feedback from my students and
then I started serving Chai to anyone that visited our studio
and to the people that came to our monthly Spiritual Cinema
Nights. Everyone loved it!
One of my students, then Angela
Pica, was really into tea at the time we met and she took me
to several tea shops in Montclair, NJ and Manhattan, NY.
I was learning from her about
all the different tea varieties that came from the same plant,
Camellia Sinensis. She used to tell me about her dream of having
a tea house...
As an herbalist myself, I thought
I could probably combine the same spices of masala chai with
different varieties of tea bases. Since Chai is a great digestive
formula, I decided to also add some of the chinese herbs to
create different blends for different medicinal purposes.
Angela and I started working together
creating different blends of Chai and in less than a month,
we had our first Chai stand at a Kindred Spirit Fair in Washington,
NJ.
We had 6 different blends, but
no brand yet. We were using the name of my yoga studio. The
fair was a huge success and we were able to see the potential
of what we were doing.
We spent hours and days to come
up with a good name for our chai company, but nothing was clicking
until we started thinking about the uniqueness of our chai and
the answer was plain and simple "It's a Yogic Chai!"
Yogic Chai was registered the
next day and nowadays we have over 20 blends of Chai, all made
with a 100% Organic Ingredients.
Angela and I are now married and
we are about to have our first baby!...Pictures coming soon!
We hope that you enjoy
our chai blends as much as we do!
Ricardo, Angela &
Dahlia Janaki Da Costa
