Journey Through Chai | Delhi & Kerala | Extended Trailer

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01]This October, I'm planning to drive a rickshaw 7,000 km across India, 17 states, 70 days, and with your support, I'm creating an eight-part documentary series to explore the people, rituals, and stories behind chai.

[00:00:17]But, I can't do this alone. This journey only happens if people like you help bring it to life.

[00:00:23]Because this isn't just a trip. It's about documenting the people and lives that gather around chai.

[00:00:30]The farmers, the chaiwalas, the families and communities.

[00:00:35]Earlier this year, I traveled across India on a short research trip. Just 5 days in the country, and even in that short time, I came across stories far deeper and more varied than I expected.

[00:00:46]This film is a glimpse of the kinds of stories we will share on a fully documented journey.

[00:00:56]When many people in the West hear the word chai, they think of a flavor. Maybe something sweet, maybe something from a cafe menu.

[00:01:04]But traveling through India, you realize very quickly that chai is doing something bigger.

[00:01:10]It creates pauses. It opens conversations. It sits inside everyday life in completely different ways depending on where you are.

[00:01:19]And through those moments, you begin to understand something deeper.

[00:01:23]Not one single story of India, but the depth, diversity, and complexity of life across it.

[00:01:30]Because outside South Asia, chai is often reduced to a flavor, a trend, or a product detached from the people, rituals, and histories that gave it meaning.

[00:01:42]So, we start our journey in Delhi, a city shaped by centuries of empires, migration, and reinvention.

[00:01:49]Like Delhi itself, chai is shaped by the people who pass through it.

[00:01:53]And today, it's one of the most vibrant chai cities in the country.

[00:01:57]Because behind every cup of chai in this city, there's a story.

[00:02:02]And one of the best ways into Delhi is to meet the chai wallahs who serve it every day.

[00:02:07]First, we meet Anita. She moved from Uttar Pradesh for better opportunities, and today she runs her own chai stall on the streets of Delhi.

[00:02:16]For Anita, chai isn't just a drink.

[00:02:19]It's independence.

[00:02:31]Uh what does chai mean to you?

[00:02:56]That is a genius.

[00:03:42]Delhi is full of characters like Anita.

[00:03:44]People whose lives are woven into the rhythm of the city through chai.

[00:03:49]Every stall tells a different story.

[00:03:51]Every cup carries a different tradition.

[00:03:54]Next, we meet Sudama in the college campus. His customers say he serves the best chai in Delhi. Why is it famous?

[00:04:01]They are using so many like mint leaves and rose leaves. So, yes. It actually tastes so good and it is very famous and not only in the north campus, but also in India as a whole. And after tasting his famous rose, tulsi, and cardamom chai, it's not hard to see why.

[00:05:08]20 cups of chai per day?

[00:05:10]Wow.

[00:05:11]What does uh chai mean to you? Chai is like for me it's a kind of medicine. Is this the best chai in Delhi?

[00:05:17]>> Yeah, obviously.

[00:05:18]>> Without a doubt.

[00:05:19]>> Yeah, yeah.

[00:05:20]What struck me most about Delhi was how creative chai can be.

[00:05:24]It's not one recipe, it's thousands.

[00:05:26]Each one shaped by the people who make it.

[00:05:30]Next, we meet Arshid, originally from Kashmir, serving a very different kind of chai. No sugar, but a rich, savory, butter chai that warms you from the inside out.

[00:06:13]>> 97 Yeah, noon chai.

[00:06:56]It makes everybody in the Kashmiri community feel at home. Huh?

[00:07:00]>> Yeah.

[00:07:01]Kashmiri Kashmiri tea a must a must In just a single city, we met three completely different chai traditions, three completely different lives. And it reminded me that chai isn't just about the ingredients, it's about the people.

[00:07:20]Across India, every family has their own way of making chai, their own spice mix, their own rituals.

[00:07:27]But if you want to understand what really makes a great cup of chai, you have to go further back to where those ingredients are grown.

[00:07:35]So, we traveled nearly 1,500 mi south, all the way to Kerala, a place locals proudly call God's Own country.

[00:07:43]Kerala has been at the center of the global spice trade for hundreds of years. Traders once crossed oceans to reach these hills. Today, those same spices continue to shape chai across India. Cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, ginger. But what we found here wasn't just incredible ingredients. It was a completely different way of growing them. At first glance, these farms almost look like a jungle.

[00:08:07]But look closer and you start to see something extraordinary.

[00:08:10]>> Oh, yeah. I know that taste. A living, breathing ecosystem where spices are grown together with nature, not against it.

[00:08:19]We came here to understand what makes great chai at its source. And that meant spending time with farmers growing its ingredients in a way that works with the land and protects its biodiversity.

[00:08:31]Because they aren't just producing spices. They're protecting a way of farming that has existed for generations. Because every cup of chai starts long before it's brewed.

[00:09:11]My name is Gino Joseph.

[00:09:18]Organic plant quality best item.

[00:09:39]I'm going to >> But to understand why these farms are growing this way, we spoke with someone helping lead a different future for agriculture in the region, Tommy from the Fair Trade Alliance Kerala.

[00:10:01]What should actually human beings be prepared to spend on food? The food budget of the average middle-class family is actually a fraction of what ideally should be.

[00:10:15]The problem with that is producing fast calls for efficiencies that do not align with the rhythms of a farm. Any of your spices, ginger or turmeric, takes 12 months.

[00:10:28]You can't speed up that process.

[00:10:31]One unseasonal rain and your crop is wiped off.

[00:10:35]A monocrop farm is chasing quick returns. A homestead farm is anchored on stability. I can take that blow in my stride because I have 15 other crops.

[00:10:48]Biodiversity is about increasing crop diversity of the land, getting organically grown spices, extreme good quality. But this product also has a social quality to it. It is an environmental quality to it. You're basically saying this product has also investment in your children. Your purchase decisions actually count. So each time you're in a store, you're buying food, you're actually voting with your shopping bag for the type of world you actually want for yourself and your children.

[00:11:23]Every time I come back from these trips, I feel so inspired, so inspired to continue your mission, our mission.

[00:11:33]In just 5 days, we met incredible people, visited extraordinary places, and came across stories I had never heard before.

[00:11:42]Stories about farming, about resilience, and about the deep connection between people and the land they work.

[00:11:49]And all of it opened up through something as ordinary and as loaded as a cup of chai.

[00:11:55]But 5 days is only the beginning.

[00:11:57]Imagine what might emerge from following that thread across a much bigger journey.

[00:12:03]And that's why this journey matters.

[00:12:05]Cuz behind every cup, there are people, traditions, and stories that often go unseen.

[00:12:12]This journey is about listening more closely to the people who grow tea and spices, to the people who make chai, and the many different communities that gather around it.

[00:12:23]So this October, I want to travel across India in a rickshaw.

[00:12:28]7,000 km, 17 states, to follow those stories further.

[00:12:33]If this journey speaks to you, I'd love for you to be a part of it. Because chai may not explain everything, but it can be a way in.