Chai Wallah, LLC

Specialty Food Artisan

Davidson County, TN 37211

Chai Wallah, LLC

Specialty Food Artisan

About

Chai Wallah, LLC is a small tea-based social enterprise creating an authentic Indian masala chai and employing formerly homeless women in the production and sale of the tea and other Indian snacks.

Programs and Partners

Production Practices

Process:
We are proud and early members of the community of chefs at Casa Azafran’s Mesa Komal community kitchen. This is our commercial commissary as we have no brick and mortar. Our chai manufacturing is an 8-hour hot-fill process under supervision of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. We grind spices by hand and have progressive steeps and strains to reach the desired flavor.

Our tomato achaar and tea biscuits are made similarly by hand—using organic and local ingredients when possible.

Waste:
We compost our used tea leaves, ginger, and spices. Our wholesale glass bottles are picked up and reused and our “new” bottles are purchased from Justice Industries, another local social enterprise employing marginalized individuals in curbside glass recycling efforts. Our hot to-go cups are compostable and lids are recyclable.

Location

Nashville, TN

Manager

Tasha A.F. Lemley
Chai Wallah uses tea to bring a bit of India to the states, create income for women who have experienced homelessness, and connect people who aren't so different after all.

Tasha was also the founder of award-winning Nashville, Tennessee social enterprise The Contributor street newspaper. She was the winner of Whole Planet Foundation's Small Change for Big Change contest and discovered authentic chai during the trip award to Mumbai and Kerala, India.

She has experience as a homeless outreach worker and spent years photographing and interviewing people who live on the streets. Most recently, she's an audio producer and wants to continue sharing the stories she hears.

Most of all, she's passionate about community and diversity—the answers we have for each other and those we can find together. She finds that the more she gets outside of the familiar, the more she learns about herself.

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Mark is a barista with more than a decade of experience in coffee sales and business management. He is a freelance writer with a graduate certificate in sustainability.

Fair Trade standards have worked their way into his heart over the last few years. He helps cultivate Chai Wallah as one of the best chai companies in the United States—in product quality and authenticity as well as business practices and sustainable community.

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