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From cramped Delhi room to 155+ outlets across India, how Blue Tokai overcame FSSAI fake licence scare to brew success
Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters started brewing when founder Matt Chittaranjan moved to Chennai from the US in 2011 for a job opportunity.
Around that time, the third wave of coffee was rising globally, focusing on the farm-to-cup concept, transparency and traceability. Inspired by this shift, Chittaranjan wanted to bring a similar 'coffee movement' to India.
He noticed that speciality coffee—with all its nuance, freshness, and respect for origin—was nowhere to be found in India. The domestic coffee market was mostly dominated by mass-produced blends and street-side kiosks, where coffee was more of a background beverage than a well-crafted experience.
This realization, coupled with his partner Namrata Asthana's support, led them to move to Delhi in 2012 to create what would become Blue Tokai, food aggregator platform Zomato wrote in a blog.
Chittaranjan and Asthana began their venture with a straightforward mission: to source high-quality Arabica beans directly from Indian producers, roast them fresh, and introduce people to what coffee could truly be.
They started small, using a 500-gram coffee roaster, operating right out of Asthana's family home. By 2013, they launched Blue Tokai's first outlet.
Despite the gradual success, they hit their first major roadblock when a consultant gave them a fake Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licence in Mumbai. Police shut them down and that's when they realised that the brand has some operational gaps.
During that troubled time, Shivam Shahi joined in on the journey as the third partner and took on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Chittaranjan believes that'this business wouldn't be where it is without him', as reported by Startup Pedia.
In the early days, Blue Tokai knew it was ahead of the curve. 'We didn't hire aggressively until 2023 and worked with a small team in those initial years,' Shahi told Zomato. But things changed significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. 'That's when the business really took off. We grew 4x after that.'
Today, according to the Blue Tokai team, the company's food items, including bestselling items like almond croissant, butter croissant, and mushroom sourdough sandwich, play a big role in its overall growth, in addition to its speciality items like Vietnamese-style iced coffee, cappuccino, and trioccino.
Currently, Blue Tokai runs 155+ outlets across eight Indian states and Japan. 'About 95% of our business comes from four big cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Bangalore,' Shahi said.
The decision to expand internationally was inspired by a steady stream of Japanese visitors at its Sikanderpur outlet. 'We realised they were very particular about taste and valued everything we stood for—quality, origin, stories,' says Shahi. This discovery led to its first overseas café in Japan.
While growing, the company made sure to customise its offerings by location. 'In Japan, people prefer darker roasts so we adjust our roasting accordingly.'
Additionally, it established an FMCG distribution network in Dubai, driven by growing international interest in Indian coffee.
As Blue Tokaiplans to enter new cities, including Hyderabad and Dehradun, the brand continues to dive deeper into the brewing journey. Once started with a 500gm roaster and a few passionate individuals, Blue Tokai has now become a brand which weaves a story with each cup, the blog noted.
