The Tea Shop (Modi Tea)

The company tells its own history in dates. Shiw Kumar Modi came to Hyderabad in 1976 and set up the first retail outlet in Kachiguda, with a wholesale tea distribution service under the name Eagle Tea and Trading Company. The network spread across united Andhra Pradesh, the Modi Tea brand was registered, a 12,000 square foot blending and packing unit was built, and the company now called Modigold Beverages says its tea reaches more than 250 retail channels, company-owned and through distributors, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Exports began in 2018.

The Tea Shop is the retail end of that business, and its price list reads like a wholesaler's. The house CTC comes in 250 g and 500 g packs under four names, Premium, Gold, Royale and Royale Masala, plus a cardamom Premium Elaichi, all made from Assam leaf the company says it sources directly and blends in its own unit. The other half of the shelf is Girnar, for which the shop is an authorised distributor: green tea in 25-bag boxes, 10-bag boxes of jasmine, Moroccan mint and camomile with honey, black tea bags with lemon or cardamom, and the instant chai premixes.

The counter is at flat G3 of Yashoda Nandanam Apartments, house number 3-4-37 and 38 in Kachiguda, postcode 500027, and the company lists its timings as Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00. It is not a tea room: there is nothing to sit down for, and the address is an apartment block rather than a shopfront, so look for the Modi Tea sign. The same address handles the online shop, which ships the packs and Girnar boxes across India, and the group site invites retailers and distributors to write in.