My great-great-grandfather left Rajasthan in the 1930s. Not by choice. A drought forced him out.
He landed in the tea belt of North Bengal with nothing but the will to survive. First at Lankapara Tea Estate. Then Bandapani Tea Estate. That is where my family was quite literally born. Not near a garden. In one.
He was not a businessman. He was a worker. Hands in the soil. Learning a land that was not his. Until it became his.
From those gardens, the family moved to Birpara. The commercial hub of the region back then, bigger than Siliguri. In 1953, two brothers, Sukhdeodas and Ramnarayan, formally registered a tea trading firm under their names with the Siliguri Tea Auction Committee.
CTC manufacturing. Bihar. Bengal. Decades of chai running through the business like it ran through their blood.
Bandapani Tea Estate, the garden where it all began for our family, is now closed. A "sick garden," in industry terms.
"The place that gave our family its roots is gone. Chinku Chai is our way of making sure that story does not end there."
I think about that a lot.
So why Chinku Chai?
When my cousin Sekhar and I decided to start this brand, it was not a market research decision. It was personal.
Tea is not a "good category" for us. It is what our great-great-grandfather survived into. It is what two brothers built a firm around in 1953. It is what our family has spent 90 years learning, trading, and carrying forward.
We are just the next chapter.
Pre-launch. CTC. Rooted in North Bengal.
And we are just getting started. 🍵
Coming up next
Why is it even called Chinku?
There is a name behind the name. And it is personal.
How did this whole thing actually start?
Was it a plan? A conversation? A very specific chai moment? We will tell you everything.
Both stories. One article. Coming soon. Stay close. 🍵
Follow along for updates, stories, and the occasional chai opinion.