Building a lasting taste for success

BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

- Namita Shibad

PUNE: After having set up their first business venture, Daftar (now renamed Origins Workspaces), a co-working space that has now stabilised post Covid, the husband-wife duo Sunanda, 39, and Amit Bhatta, 41, could have sat pretty on the success of their first startup. But then the "bug" doesn't let you do that.

Sunanda said, "We are avid travellers and had spent a few months in Angers, France. During that time, we simply fell in love with French cuisine, especially the basics-croissants and coffee. Whenever we travelled abroad, these were the simple pleasures we craved. But every time we came back home and searched for good coffee, we realised there weren't many options available.

"The few cafes here that offered quality coffee were priced so high that having it daily wasn't practical. While chai (tea) is easily accessible at every nook and corner of the city and at an affordable price, coffee-a daily essential for many like us-remained out of reach in terms of quality and affordability."

Like most people who have exacting taste buds, they did the expected - they made their own coffee. Sunanda said, "Initially, we tried brewing a good cup for ourselves. Amit took it upon himself to brew the perfect coffee. We started with Indian filter coffee for ourselves and also offered it to a few people but soon realised that it wasn't just about the coffee itself; it was also about the lifestyle that accompanies it. That led us to upgrade to an espresso machine. And once we did it, we realised the huge gap in the market-both in terms of the quality of coffee being offered and the price at which it was available."

The lack of good coffee at an affordable price was the gap in the market.