The Story Behind the Story - Got Tea

Let’s talk about flavours. How did the team come up with their original four flavours for the launch of the store? And how do they keep coming up with new flavours?  The experimentation with flavours started last year in SuAh and YuSung’s apartment’s kitchen, where they were perfecting their signature drinks. They wanted to start with drinks which were colourful and caught the attention of the customers (after all, you first eat with your eyes), and which were classic bubble tea flavours.  When the Got Tea team started serving their products at the events, they had narrowed down to a couple of flavours: Caramel Brown, Classic Black, Desi Chai, Santara Sparkle, Strawberry Sparkle and Green Matcha. Most of the flavours did well, except for Desi Chai.  The ill-fated Desi Chai flavour This was a surprise to the team, who thought this would be a safe flavour. They assumed that a good chai would attract people to try this new experience of a bubble tea. But they quickly realize...

Now those of you that have had some Got Tea bubble tea (or if you have seen their photos on Instagram) will know that they have some unique packaging – they use PET cans for their drinks. So, why PET cans?  SuAh and YuSung had decided early on that they wanted to use PET cans for their bubble teas, and there were three main reasons behind this.  The first reason was aesthetics and style: aesthetically, the Got Tea team found that the PET cans made their product stand out. Now, bubble tea is not a drink that can be served in an opaque tumbler – customers want to see the bubbles and the pretty colours of their drinks. So, they had two options – plastic or glass.  But they didn’t want to go down the glass bottle route, because they felt it had been done and dusted (think Keventers). They wanted packaging that would help customers differentiate them from other similar ventures. And indeed, the PET can has become an essential part of the brand’s identity.  Got Tea's limit...

The team stayed determined to continue with their vision and to make their bubble tea dreams come true, even with the pandemic plaguing the world. They were focused on the future and were keen to launch soon. So they started focusing on setting up a storefront.  The team wanted to stay in the Safdarjung area – YuSung and SuAh had stayed there a couple of months in 2020, and Jo had been living there for a few years, so they were familiar with the area; the market was quite nice, and had enough footfall; and the market rents were comparatively cheaper.  The team, however, was still not sure if they wanted to take on the huge overhead costs of a whole shop by themselves, so they began to think of the possibility of co-sharing space with another business. Even before the pandemic started, the team had been in touch with Diana from Bamboo Hut in B6 Safdarjung Market, about this idea. Diana wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue renting the whole space, and the Got Tea team didn’t wa...

By early March 2020, SuAh had already left for Korea, due to visa restrictions. YuSung’s plan was to go back to Korea in July for a bit, before returning to India again. However, by 24 March, the Prime Minister of India announced a nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and YuSung was left stranded in Delhi.  He had been listening to the PM’s speech and went out that evening to stock up on supplies. It became difficult though – he was stuck alone in his apartment in Delhi, and had no company or help. He wanted to keep going with the plans for Got Tea, but others weren’t sure how the pandemic would affect the business. So, the team decided that perhaps it was time to reimagine the direction their brand would take, at least for the next little bit.  YuSung had been in contact with the South Korean embassy in Delhi and managed to fly back to Korea in mid-April on a special flight. With SuAh and YuSung in Korea, and Armaan and Jo in Delhi (and the world flung into disar...