Ahead of International Chai Day on 21 May, we meet the Melbourne entrepreneurs Bina and Raj Shah turning a migrant’s craving into a booming business.
For Bina and Raj Shah, the day doesn’t really start until they have had their tea or chai. It’s not just about the caffeine. It’s the warmth, the spices, and the quiet moment of comfort before the chaos of the day begins.
“If you’re tired, happy, or sad, chai is the go-to thing,” Bina says.
But when Bina first arrived in Australia from India back in 1993, that simple comfort was nowhere to be found. What passed for tea here was a disappointment.
“We always got dip-dip tea bags with cold milk,” she laughs, still sounding a little offended after all these years.
Coming from Mumbai and Gujarat, where chai is a ritual made with ginger, cardamom, mint, and sometimes tulsi (holy basil), the Australian version just didn’t cut it. For years, she and her husband Raj missed that authentic taste. Making the perfect masala chai at home every day was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Still, the craving never went away.
For a long time, the Shahs did what most migrants do. They suffered through bad coffee or brought back premixes from India in their suitcases. They shared these packets with friends, and soon, everyone was asking the same question: Where did you get this? Can you get me some?
That’s when the penny dropped. Bina and Raj realised that the market in Australia had finally matured. It wasn’t just Indians missing home anymore. Non-Indians were starting to discover and love the complex flavours of real chai.
“There was growing demand and growing awareness,” Bina explains. “We thought, this is the right time.”
But they didn’t want to just import the same old stuff. When they looked at the ingredients on the back of the packets from India, they saw a lot of unnecessary additives. Plus, you can’t import natural dairy products from India anyway. So, they decided to do it themselves.
In 2023, after a full year of research and testing with thousands of friends and family, Mumbai Cutting Chai was born. They set up a manufacturing unit in Dandenong South, where they blend everything locally. About 80 percent of the ingredients such as the milk powder, sugar, and creamer are Australian. But the heart of the tea, the extract, still comes from where it belongs: Assam and Darjeeling.
“You can’t have chai without Assamese tea,” Bina says.
The name itself comes from a nostalgic Mumbai memory. In the busy business districts of the city, people used to have so many visitors that they couldn’t drink full cups of tea all day. So they started pouring “cutting chai” – half a glass, just enough to share and be polite.
Today, Mumbai Cutting Chai is a full-blown success story. They produce about 3,000 kilos of chai powder every month. One kilo makes about 50 cups. And the chai has travelled.
“Our chai has reached Japan, Malaysia, America, and Canada,” Bina says.
One of her favourite stories is about a Malaysian restaurant owner who was visiting his daughter in Melbourne. He tasted their chai, fell in love with it, and literally left his clothes behind. He used his entire baggage allowance to carry packets of Mumbai Cutting Chai back to Malaysia. Now, they export to him commercially. They have even received FDA approval to start sending chai to the United States.
But for Bina, the numbers are not the whole story.
“Tea is culture in India. It’s a religion,” she says. “If you say you don’t drink tea, it’s almost offensive.”
She sees people switching back to chai after years of drinking coffee, simply because they could never find the real thing. Even international artists and cricketers demand their chai when they tour Melbourne.
As World Tea Day approaches on 21 May, Bina’s message is simple: Drink more tea. Go back to the basics.
She wants chai to become as common here as a flat white. Not as a fancy, overpriced drink, but as an everyday comfort. Whether you are an Indian expat missing the buzz of a Mumbai tapri, or an Aussie looking for something warmer and spicier than a latte.
“Great chai isn’t just brewed,” Bina says. “It’s shared.”
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