CHENNAI : Boman Irani’s mornings are not complete until he spends a few minutes with his newspaper while sipping on hot Irani chai and munching a few butter biscuits. The 65-year-old owner of the Irani Tea Stall on Smith’s Road is proud of their quintessential tea. The legacy of the Irani chai concept traces back to 1965 when the first Irani tea shop was set up by his father Marazban Irani at Wall Tax Road near the Central Station. Boman’s grandfather moved to India from Iran in early 1900s and eventually settled in Pune. His father Marazban Irani pursued engineering in Pune, and moved to Chennai and settled here with the family. He passed away in 2003.
The shop on Smith’s Road is 50 years old. Eventually, 13 outlets were opened across the city in north and south Chennai. “Business runs in our genes. In 1971, I joined the family business; in 1974, my brother and cousins did. Each of us has two to three joints under our care. However, I seem to be the most interested one out of all,” says Boman, who also owns the Sweet Corner shop, which opened in 1994, two blocks away.
It’s 10 am and the 250 sq ft shop is bustling with customers. There are six workers, including two tea masters. Every second, a cup of tea is served in a 60 ml glass along with butter biscuits, or a plate of crisp samosas. Bun-butter-jam accompanied with tea is the hot favourite here.
“My father introduced the concept of standing and drinking tea. The room is divided into three parts — the serving counter, a wall behind it where the preparation goes on, and the area where customers relish their snacks. Every shop of ours also serves lassi, and a paan counter is attached to it,” adds Boman, who has three children.
The eatery also serves cakes, puffs, salt biscuits and buns that are freshly baked and brought in from their central kitchen in Chintadripet. The snacks are supplied to all the outlets. The returning customers stand testimony to the quality and pricing of the food here.
The specialty of Irani chai, Boman says, is that it’s made in dum style. Special utensils are vacuum-sealed. Tea powder along with water is boiled for long hours, to retain the flavours, separately in a copper cauldron. It is then added to half a glass of milk and served with froth on top. “Around 650 glasses of tea are sold on a regular basis.
The crowd differs during different times of the day. We also serve special tea made of cardamom and masala powder. Three hundered glasses of special tea are sold. Every day 60 litres of milk from Arakkonam is brought here. Our tea master has been there since the beginning. He handles the kitchen,” says Dinesh, who has been working here for the last 13-14 years.
Talking about the evolution of tea shops, Boman says, “Earlier I used to sit at the cash counter every day and interact with my customers. Based on the chiming of the clock I can tell which person would drop in, by their names. My father was a punctual man, he valued his customers and wanted his staff to be happy. I follow the same and respect the man for that.
Back then, a tea was 50 paise and now it’s `10. I miss the customer-friendly conversations since everything has become arithmetic now. I’m worried about the future of our tea. Despite training a few youngsters, not many are interested in learning the process of tea-making. So we have converted a few of our outlets into juice shops. The consumption pattern of tea among people is actually amazing. More people seem to prefer chai over coffee whether it is north or south Madras.”The shop is located at 6, Mount Road, Anna Salai, Triplicane, Chennai 600002