Indian tea deserves its space on the global stage

With my recent travel to London, I realized something that’s hard to ignore—

Indian tea is everywhere. From boutique cafés to high-end stores, teas from Darjeeling and Assam are on shelves, in blends, in teapots being poured with ceremony. And yet, they’re rarely carrying an Indian name.

India is the second-largest producer of tea in the world, and yet, we don’t have a single Indian tea brand that is truly global in its identity and presence.

This trip was a reminder of how our tea is being celebrated abroad—but not as ours. It’s packaged and positioned under foreign brands, often at a premium. The value our teas command outside India is immense. But back home? We still treat tea as a commodity.

We’ve poured generations of craftsmanship into our estates. The quality is not in question. What’s missing is the marketing muscle, the brand story, the global aspiration.

We need to go beyond exporting tea—we need to export narratives.

Indian tea deserves its space on the global stage—not just for what it is, but for how it’s told, sold, and remembered. As someone who has lived and breathed this industry for years, I believe the next global tea brand can and should emerge from India.

And I’m more convinced than ever—it’s time.