‘The Tea Trove’ traces its roots back to 1917 when the Kanoi family used to own and manage 42 tea gardens in Assam. Over the years, the business grew to be an industry within itself – including the cultivation, processing, trading and packing of tea. With every generation in the business, the Kanois developed an expertise in planting the right tea (including clones created after years of scientific research), picking the best leaves, maintaining consistent quality, using state-of-the-art machines to process tea, and also a deep understanding of the Indian consumer, his preferred blends, style of brewing, etc.Rishav Kanoi’s love for tea began when he was a teenager. After completing his B.Com from St. Xavier's College (Kolkata) and CFA from ICFAI (Hyderabad), he joined the family business in 2003. But the tea industry was going through a bad slump and the business was facing multiple challenges.
Realizing the huge gap in prices between premium quality and medium grade teas, he convinced the family to invest in upgrading their factories and within a short time they started producing one of the best quality teas in Assam.Rishav also observed that tea had always been targeted towards adults, and youngsters did not find it interesting. He believed that tea could be marketed as a fun drink! So he restarted work on some tea recipes that he had written during his school days, and came up with varied and unique concoctions that are popular items on the menu of The Tea Trove today.After profitably exiting the family business, Rishav launched The Tea Trove café in 2012 with rave reviews and soon became a favourite with Kolkatans. They won The Times Food Award (2013), The Telegraph Food Awards in the tea/coffee category (2013), Indian Restaurant Award (2014), and Zomato User’s Choice Award (2013 & 2014). Rishav successfully reinvented an age-old beverage and still continues to launch innovative variations of tea that have mass appeal, especially with the youth.
For instance, blends like Strawberry-Basil Green Tea can be served with Soda, as Iced Tea, or even as a Popsicle!The Tea Trove sources freshly packed teas (black, white, oolong, and green) directly from the cultivators and blends them into unique and exquisite flavours using freeze dried herbs (peppermint, lemon-tulsi, chamomile, lemongrass etc.), freeze dried fruits (apple, orange peel, mango, pineapple, etc.), freeze dried flowers (rose, lavender, jasmine, etc.), and freeze dried spices (cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, etc.). In addition to the health benefits, their products are handcrafted and made fresh daily with all-natural ingredients. Rishav is a firm believer in improving the quality of the tea and the customer experience constantly, but he’s passionate about product innovations. His favourite quote is, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it!” (Albert Einstein.)