Suraj Tea Co

Suraj Tea Co sits at 2571 Chandpole Bazar on Rajashidas Rasta. If you walk down this way, you can usually smell the tea before you even see our door. We have big sacks of tea leaves piled up in the back and smaller packets sitting out front. It’s an old part of the city, so the building has its quirks, like the uneven floors and the narrow entrance. Every morning starts with opening those heavy shutters and checking the shipments that came in. We spend most of our time weighing out different leaves or talking to the regulars who have been coming here for years. It’s a loud area, especially when the rickshaws go by, but inside it’s mostly about the tea. We don't have any high-tech systems here. We use old scales and keep our records in thick books. It works for us. Sometimes the light inside isn't the best, but we know where everything is by heart. People stop by for a chat while they wait for their orders to be packed. It feels like a small community in this rasta. We just focus on the tea and keeping the shop running. It’s a lot of manual work, lifting those heavy bags, but we don’t mind it much. It’s just what we do here every day. The tea bags are always stacked up and the days go by pretty fast when you’re busy.