Calcutta, May 18: A nation of beer drinkers will now get to while away the hours on the dainty charms of a very Indian beverage.

Germany, the country which hosts Oktoberfest, the world renowned beer festival, will now see as many as 150 new bars offering, not beer, but Darjeeling tea.

This is the plan of Calcutta-based Arya Tea Company, which also intends to open a larger number of bars, around 400, in Asian countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

“Our brand is organic Darjeeling orthodox and green tea called Monk. We will launch our brand through these tea bars. Till now, we used to export our produce in bulk to European countries. We will be tying up with restaurant chains in Germany and utilise part of their spaces for conversion into tea bars. The first series of bars should be launched in the next three months,” said V. Hindu Bansal, managing director of Arya Tea.

The total investment for the plan is Rs 15 crore, which will be shared by the partner restaurant companies.

Arya has already tied up with the Sangeet chain of Indian restaurants, which has 25 outlets in Germany.

“We will form a subsidiary company in Germany to look after this venture. The tie-up with the restaurant chain will ensure that we do not have to look for fresh infrastructure but leverage their existing facility, especially during the odd hours such as after lunch and before dinner. We will also include a range of snacks. The packaging of the tea will be customer friendly with vacuum seal packs,” Bansal said.

The company has also booked space in the DLF shopping mall coming up at Rajarhat and is looking for another 2,000 sq ft in central Calcutta for a Monk tea bar. Individual brands of Darjeeling tea named after gardens such as Makaibari, Happy Valley and Ambootia are well known abroad. However, a large portion of the Darjeelings found in Europe is blended with a Sri Lankan variety.

The bulk export price of Darjeeling tea is around Rs 500 per kg but in countries such as Germany the tea is sold for Rs 6,000 per kg. “We want to tap this market with our own brand of organic tea and tea bars,” said Bansal.

The tea outlets will come up in the German cities of Munich, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Plans to trademark the Monk brand and the tea bars are also on the anvil.

Asia venture

Hong Kong-based business associate Buttar & Co will partner the company in its Asia venture. “We will operate on the same model for countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong,” said Bansal.