Variety Tea Depo

Lakhara Chowk is always noisy and Dhanmandi is where most of the action happens during the day. Variety Tea Depo has been in this corner for years. We handle all kinds of tea leaves, from the thick grainy ones to the thin black dust. When you walk in, the first thing you notice is the smell, it’s strong and stays in your clothes. I share the space with my brother and we mostly spend the morning sorting through the new arrivals. The street outside is full of bikes and carts, so it’s never really quiet. We don’t bother with much decoration. The walls are a bit stained from years of work and the light bulb flickers sometimes if the wind is too high. Customers come in looking for something specific for their morning pot. They don’t want a sales pitch, they just want to know if the quality is the same as last month. We tell them the truth, even if the batch is a bit different because of the weather. It’s a practical business. We don't have a website or anything like that, just the shop floor and the scales. Most days involve a lot of lifting and moving boxes around. By the time we close up, the floor is covered in tea dust and our backs are usually a bit sore. It’s just the way the work goes at Dhanmandi in Lakhara Chowk.