A sprinkle of TanTea retail tea shops operate across Tamil Nadu, largely run by dealerships attached to Tamilnadu Tea Plantation Corporation Limited, shortened to TanTea. In Chennai, habitués of Mylapore have likely noticed a TanTea shop abutting the Kapaleeswarar temple tank on RK Mutt Road. If they have not, they cannot be a habitué of that part of town, as this outlet pitched tent there nearly 11 years ago.
And it is likely that even the habitués of that area are unaware that those teas sold in cups as well as in packets in cover designs befitting a brand have a connection with the TanTea headquarters and factory on Orange Grove Road at Conoor. The packets are shipped from there. The odds are even lower that they know that tea plantations in the Nilgiris that follow the clonal plantation model support the making of those teas. And it is even more likely that they do not know that “kindness” is an ingredient that went into the establishment of TanTea. When it was established in 1968 under the Chief Ministership of C. N. Annadurai, it was known as the Government Tea Project. From the 1970s onwards, the Tamil Nadu Government had kept these plantations going to support Tamil repatriates from Sri Lanka, providing them with livelihoods linked to the maintenance of the plantations and the production of teas. Reportedly, the initiative received a huge impetus from M.G. Ramachandran during his terms as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu as he viewed it as a vehicle delivering justice to uprooted Sri Lankan Tamils.
A TanTea outlet on Gandhi Mandapam Road in Kotturpuram inside the Government Data Centre premises. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
These are the factors that make what swirls in that cup at a TanTea outlet special, of course in addition to the unique flavours and taste those teas bring to the teapot.
The Mylapore outlet is run by a TanTea dealership, Giri and Co, whose reins are wielded by the father-son duo of S. Thiruvasagam and T. Arunkumar. They have two other outlets, one at Kotturpuram on Gandhi Mandapam Road, inside the CM’s Call Centre premises, widely known as the Government Data Centre, and the other at the Kilambakaam Bus Terminus; both outlets are of recent mint, having been established in 2025 and 2024 respectively.
Of the three outlets, the one at Mylapore is an outlier in terms of operational timings. It functions 24 hours, except from a break between 1.30 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., with workers employed on a shift system. The outlet at Kotturpuram functions more like a canteen, the eats varied and meant to be more filling as students from the Anna University nearby as well as those from the Madras School of Economics, located behind the Government Data Centre, step in regularly in addition to the general crowd. “On average, every day, 200 to 250 students come to the outlet at Kotturpuram to have breakfast, lunch, dinner and chaat items,” says Arunkumar. “And there are students working at the CM’s Call Centre, around a hundred of them, and we provide them the eats and teas at subsidised prices.”
On why run a TanTea outlet when fresh competition is always brewing in the tea drinking market, a new chain of pocket-sized tea shops always appearing on the horizon from nowhere, Arunkumar remarks it is partly because of the history of empowerment that goes with the brand, and in part due to the unique appeal those teas make to taste buds.
A Tantea outlet at Kilambakkam bus terminus | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Arunkumar believes that once the customers taste it, the product speaks for itself. And Arunkumar lines up impressive numbers in terms of footfall for the three outlets, each of which offers eats from its kitchen to go with a range of TanTea teas, including what he calls the latest sensation, fruit and flower teas. The milk tea however remains the major grosser.
From his experience, the tea cup at his TanTea outlets is a leveller, bringing students, corporate employees, auto drivers and bus drivers and conductors, among others, to the same table. He was making a specific reference to the outlet on RK Mutt Road near the Mylapore temple tank: “before Metro Rail work arrived in this area, MTC buses would be parked on RK Mutt Road along the temple tank, and the bus crew would park themselves at the outlet for steaming cups of tea.”
Relationship with Mylapore extends beyond commerce and encompasses community. Arunkumar observes that for nearly a decade, the shop has joined the annual 63 Nayanmars festival at the Kapaleeshwar Temple by ensuring free supply of cool drinks, hot teas and coffees, snacks and even packed cooked rice varieties for four days, serving around 400 people each day. Around the Kapaleeswarar tempe and the tank, there is no dearth of shops that sell eats, many of which have gained a rabid following and regularly find their way to reels on social media. And a desire to enter residents’ mind scape in this climate takes some doing; and this is clearly one effective way of making a connection with the neighbourhood and its people, though the 63 Nayanmar fest at Kapaleeswarar temple draws devotees from various parts of the city.
“Over the ten-plus years of its existence, the Mylpore outlet has witnessed customers who have been its regular patrons from the time a cup of milk tea cost Rs. 5 to now when it costs Rs. 20. It is only a few months since the cost of cup of milk tea was raised to Rs. 20. Before that, it was sold at Rs. 15,” says Arunkumar.
Arunkumar notes his outlets at Mylapore and Kotturpuram have drawn celebrities from within the city, cricketer Sri Sudharshan’s visit being etched in his memory. The photo he clicked with the batsman is a proud possession in his mobile storage folder.
