Exactly a year ago in December 2020, all of us were looking back at a challenging year, hoping that the new year around the corner was even slightly easier than what we had gone through. While 2021 did not start on a great note for the world, we all learnt to stride through. As a business, we have undergone several changes this year, and we are very fortunate that they have all brought us closer to where we want to be. So, here’s looking back at a year where Blue Tokai experimented and expanded under challenging conditions, all while staying true to its promise of offering the best cup of specialty coffee.
In 2021, we took our core pillars of transparency, accessibility, knowledge and convenience a notch higher as we continued to integrate these across all our offerings to individual customers and B2B partners, alike. This year, we introduced a few new offerings, reimagined some old ones and amplified our efforts to meet the growing demand for a good cup of coffee.
When we started roasting in 2013, we used to operate with a small 500gm machine that had us roasting for 12-14 hours straight because of how small it was. Over the years, we upgraded and are now using two 12kg and one 25kg machines, with our roasting vertical expanding beyond the NCR, to Mumbai and Bengaluru as well. So far, we have successfully roasted over 1,000 tonnes of coffee at Blue Tokai. And that’s not all. This year, we also started operating our first roastery-bakery-café in Mumbai at Chembur. So the next time you’re around, make sure to drop by for some freshly roasted coffee to go with your freshly baked croissants and pop in for a chat with our roasters.
We also took a leap of faith in 2020 and introduced the ‘Producer Series’, our limited-edition rare coffees that are produced and roasted in nano lots. This year, we continued the success of the series as we released our ninth lot last week. A lot of credit for these delicious coffees, which have sold out very quickly, goes to our partner farms that have been working towards enhancing the quality of green beans, which offers us exciting opportunities to develop roast profiles to highlight their work.
2021 has also been a year of several launches. We opened the doors to 12 new physical outlets this year and by the end of the fiscal year, Blue Tokai will be home to a total of 21 new cafes, elevating your out-of-home coffee-drinking experience. As of now, we’ve served close to 3 million cups of coffee at our physical outlets to our continuously growing community of specialty coffee drinkers. One of the things that we love doing most is taking our customers on educational journeys. So, we kickstarted Taster’s Club in June, with a mission to build an online space for coffee lovers who want to learn more about coffee in a very in-depth manner. But the list doesn’t end here because what’s a year without a new product launch? Just as we were wrapping up the year, we launched Cold Brew cans and we have already seen so much love for the flavours and the convenience that they offer!
From the day that we launched our roastery with that 500g roaster to now, we continue to stay so grateful for all the support we have received from our customers. We are also indebted to our team members who work hard to ensure that our coffee and service meet the standards that we have continued to build on since 2013.
We’ll be back soon as we draw curtains on this year and spend the festive season with our loved ones. We don’t expect the beginning of 2022 to be easy, but we will always be there to serve you a cup of coffee made with a great deal of love and care, and we are grateful to be able to do this especially during times of uncertainty.
We wish you a healthy and safe year ahead.
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