Emirati-Indian duo brings love of tea and street culture to UAE

Gulf News

Two friends in Dubai give up corporate careers, create a fusion of their cultures  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3fm8uzw  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #tea #Dubai

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, this is Anjana Kumar from Gulf News and I'm here to introduce you to

00:09a very interesting man, his name is Ahmed Kazim, he's Emirati, living in Dubai and he

00:14owns a home-grown tea concept called Project Chaiwala.

00:18It's right here in Al Sarkar Avenue at Cinema Aqeel, so let's go in and meet him and understand

00:24about his niche teas and how he creates them.

00:27This is actually our first store of Project Chaiwala, this is where the story started,

00:33so let me walk you through it.

00:35It's the first art house, cinema in the GCC, and it coincided with them looking for a full-time

00:42F&B operator, so it was perfect for us because we started off as an event, we were testing

00:48the market, etc.

00:50So it worked out perfectly and this is very, very unique, if you look at the posters, we

00:56have some Chaiwala images that slip through, but it's a very unique location and that's

01:02where it all started.

01:03There's a lot of showmanship involved, that's why they serve the one-meter chai, it has

01:08a charm to it and the whole idea of this is to put a smile on your face, it's like your

01:13disconnect.

01:14As an Emirati, how were you inspired to start that concept?

01:17The cultures are very intersected, India and UAE, and my business partner is actually Indian

01:23as well, so I grew up in the UAE, so it makes a lot of sense.

01:27We're glad that our cultures came together and we found this gap and I think it complements

01:31one another and an important thing for us, me being UAE, him being raised here, this

01:37is home for him, so we want it to be made in Dubai, hopefully transported abroad, rather

01:42than the other way around of getting international brands here, I think Dubai inspires you to

01:47do so.

01:48I can't wait to try this, this is the signature chai of Project Chaiwala.

01:53Let's see the verdict, fingers crossed.

01:59I feel like there's a biscuity flavor to it.

02:02Close, close.

02:03Am I right?

02:04You're close.

02:05But we're not going to reveal the secret sauce.

02:06Don't tell me it's Parle-G!

02:10No, but it's really yummy, it doesn't feel like a typical chai, it's very grounded.

02:17Was it part of the upbringing?

02:18It is, 100%.

02:21Thankfully, the way we were raised, we were always raised to earn things and be independent

02:28and that was key in our upbringing.

02:30We come from a family of merchants, so entrepreneurship was kind of, if you may, in your DNA, right?

02:36While starting off your career, that's in the back of your head, so you're always working

02:42towards something, I guess, subconsciously it's there.

02:45But the important thing is that we needed the fundamentals before starting a business,

02:48especially if you want to build a legitimate business, you need to really work on your

02:53fundamentals.

02:54Entrepreneurship is that you do your homework and then you reap the benefits, it's not

02:59jumping into it blindly.

03:00What's key for us is being agile.

03:02Times have changed, COVID happened, we had other plans in place, but okay, if we're

03:07going to come through it, we need to do one, two, three, four, and that's what we did.

03:11And hopefully, we're in an adaptive brand that can understand the circumstances to always

03:16get better.

03:17So it's a wrap from us here.

03:21Thank you so much for watching and I'm going to eat my Parle-G biscuits as we say

03:27bye to you.

03:28This is Anjana Kumar for Valkyries and Ahmed Kazim here as well, saying bye.

03:32Ciao!

03:41Bye!

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