Vake up to Varietea

Second generation entrepreneur Rishit Patel is an aspirational professional and is setting trends for the beverage industry. His existing business Varietea is one of the most successful tea lounge brands in India. Post-Varietea’s success, he talks about his latest foray into on-the-go retail outlet Vake Up that will serve healthy, quick food and drink items.

- Beny Sachdeva

From tea estates to restaurants, what made you diversify?

I still own tea estates in Assam and am actively involved in marketing and distribution of tea. We have been selling teas to Gujarat for the past three generations, so teas and tisanes are in our blood. It was probably the need to create something new, innovative and quirky, something that would have instantly connected with the youth, and that led to the inception of Varietea. There are a lot of coffee places, but hardly any tea lounge. We figured the gap, and launched Varietea.

How did you come up with such inventive tea flavors?

Being from a tea background, I am an austere tea lover and understand the subtle nuances of the beverage. Due to extensive travelling, I began to taste international teas and their variants. It was then the idea of Varietea came to me, and I wanted to take this to my own roots, Ahmedabad. In our city, international cuisine has been embraced, we tried to instill an international tea experience and it worked!