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Nikhil KamathEp #22 | WTF are Craft Beverages? Nikhil ft. the Founders of Blue Tokai, Subko, Svami, and Mossant
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Founders unpack India’s craft beverages: coffee, kombucha, tonics, growth.
- Nikhil Kamath hosts founders/leaders from Blue Tokai (Matt Chitharanjan), Subko (Rahul Reddy), Mossant (Adithya Kidambi), and Svami (Aneesh Bhasin) to define and demystify “craft beverages” in India.
- They trace personal journeys into beverages, then get highly practical: how to open a café, where profits come from (food vs beverages), what differentiates brands once “good coffee” becomes baseline, and why Tier-2 India is still underserved.
- The conversation expands into kombucha and mixers: fermentation basics, consumer education, the role of quick commerce, market sizing, export potential, and why India’s beverage GST/tax rules can discourage innovation.
- A recurring theme is that enduring moats come from product quality + distribution + authentic storytelling (not “India’s first”), while culture (community events, subculture, design) increasingly drives footfall as younger consumers drink less alcohol and spend more time in cafés.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasIn India, cafés are food businesses as much as coffee businesses.
Both Blue Tokai and Subko cite ~50/50 revenue splits between food and beverages, meaning menu design and operational consistency matter as much as roast quality for unit economics.
Differentiation is shifting from “better coffee” to culture, identity, and experience.
Subko argues that as coffee culture matures, good coffee becomes the minimum; brands win via subcultural hooks (vinyl, events), design language, and unique beverage formats (coffee “speakeasy” cocktails).
A hot kitchen can raise average checks, but talent/consistency become the real bottleneck.
Blue Tokai notes hot kitchens can increase APC, yet retaining strong kitchen staff and maintaining consistency is hard—hence central kitchens + make-lines are often preferred.
India’s coffee market is still shallow relative to demand—especially outside metros.
Matt estimates ~5,000 branded coffee shops (plus a similar number unbranded), implying a large whitespace, particularly in Tier-2 cities where options are fewer and the category is underpenetrated.
Opening beside incumbents can help—coffee clusters can expand total demand.
Blue Tokai observes that when multiple cafés open near each other, the area can become a destination and all players may benefit (unlike restaurants where queues concentrate demand).
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesAnybody who wants to learn or who's keen on starting a coffee shop, a kombucha brand, sell tonic… should learn something here and go away with that.
— Nikhil Kamath
We’re at a four hundred crore run rate.
— Matt Chitharanjan (Blue Tokai)
We try to be more accessible… they’re more niche premium.
— Matt Chitharanjan (comparing Blue Tokai vs Subko)
You have to have a key focus on shit that has nothing to do with coffee or food.
— Rahul Reddy (Subko)
Kombucha is essentially vinegar. It’s tea vinegar.
— Adithya Kidambi (Mossant)
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
