Summer Beverages

Vol. 219

As we’ve officially entered the summer season and with warmer days ahead, one of Stranger’s Guide’s favorite ways to cool down is with a refreshing drink. Today’s Field Guide explores the traditions and histories of beloved summertime beverages from Japan to South Africa. We’re producing this week’s guide in partnership with our friends at One Stripe Chai and we kick off with an interview with their Chief Chai Officer, Farah Jesani.

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Interview with Farah Jesani from One Stripe Chai

Stranger’s Guide: What prompted you to start One Stripe Chai? 

Farah Jesani: I started it kind of by accident. I used to live in New York City and worked in tech consulting, but I felt like it wasn't satisfying and I didn't feel like I was doing the things that made me feel happy. And around that same time, I was getting very interested in specialty coffee. I quit my job in New York and I ended up venturing out to Portland, Oregon and thought, like, let me kind of immerse myself in the coffee scene. Portland is a big specialty coffee city. But what I realized was those shops were selling really great coffee, but really bad chai.

And to me, it felt like there’s a disconnect here. Chai, which is a very global beverage and is kind of the lifeblood of a lot of countries in Asia, is being treated as a line item on a menu here in the US. I realized that most coffee shops don’t have stovetops, so they can’t make a traditional pot of chai and they rely on these pre-brewed liquid concentrates or powder blends that I wasn’t in love with. 

So I started thinking, can we just make a better option for coffee shops? That was the original purpose of the company and our hero product is a liquid chai concentrate that we sell to coffee shops and the food service world.Then the pandemic happened and overnight, all of our customers closed their shops and we had to decide what we were going to do. I had always wanted to sell a looseleaf line as well so people could learn to make chai at home. We decided to pivot and launch our Chai Me At Home Blend and our turmeric latte blend called, It’s Haldi Doodh. And so we launched those two products and our ecommerce really started to take off.