December 2021 was a busy month for everyone at Got Tea. In the last episode, I told you all about our expanded menu, bubble tea drops and had two pop-up weekends at 32nd Avenue in Gurgaon. But we did even more in December – can you believe it?
Partnership with Indonesian embassy
Perhaps a little known fact is that many people who work in the Indonesian embassy in New Delhi are our loyal customers and have been so for a while now. So when the Indonesian embassy approached us to set up a pop-up stall for their Indonesian Mother’s Day celebration on 22 December, of course we agreed!
Since so many people already knew about Got Tea and loved bubble tea, the drinks were gone in seconds. Folks also enjoyed our croffles, with the most popular flavour being peanut butter.
The event was such a success that the embassy called us back for another celebration for New Year’s Eve, on 31 December. Due to the curfews imposed by the state government, in light of new COVID-19 advisories, we did not have a full pop-up stall at the event, but we did provide the embassy with prepared drinks.
Both these events were such wonderful successes, the team is now thinking of expanding our partnerships with more embassies, especially of South-East Asian countries which already have a bubble tea culture and who may be missing that in Delhi.
NCT Cup Sleeve
An in-store event that we held in December was with NCTzens in Delhi. For those of you who don’t know, NCT is a popular K-pop group, and their fans are called NCTzens. The NCTzens of Delhi approached Got Tea to hold a cupsleeve event for NCT fans in the city, to celebrate the launch of their new album, Universe. A cupsleeve event is usually organized around an important day for a group, and features merchandise that fans can get along with purchases made in the café.
The organizers of the cupsleeve designed some merchandise and even decorated the store to celebrate the event. For that day, we renamed our Caramel Brown drink to Caramel Dream and also designed special pet can stickers, which were loved by the fans– all those who purchased the Caramel Dream received a cup sleeve, and those that purchased a combo received a film strip of the group as well.
It was a wonderful event with fans all over Delhi congregating to celebrate their favourite K-pop group, and we were able to meet some new bubble tea enthusiasts.
Overcoming the cold
Perhaps the most surprising thing about our very busy and successful December was that we managed to do this even while Delhi faced a bitter winter, and the fact that we mostly sell cold bubble teas usually would work against us. So, how did we do this?
Well, the events were obviously a great way for us to increase our presence in the Delhi market, but we also tried to make the café as cosy as we could, to help customers fight the cold. We introduced a range of warm drinks, including flavours such as Earl Grey, Peachy Oolong and Peachy Yuja, which did really well.
And to bring a little bit of Korea to our store, we also made some fuzzy blankets which our customers could use while they were visiting us – so we went shopping and made our own blankets, to ensure that our customers stayed warm!
Though the month was busy and hectic for us, we are thankful to have ended 2021 on such a high note, forming new relationships and spreading the love of bubble tea to new audiences. While 2022 began with a new wave of COVID-19 and ensuing lockdowns, we are optimistic that this year is going to be even bigger and better than the last.
This journal is an ongoing series tracing the story of Got Tea, the latest bubble tea store launched in India, located in South Delhi, now available on Zomato and Swiggy. Want to know what happens next? Stay tuned – watch this space for new episodes!