Tea Shop Recommendation: Vahdam India

I have always enjoyed a hot cup of tea. I grew up drinking orange pekoe grade black tea with a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar. I hated going to school for many reasons, but one of them was that I couldn’t make myself a cup of tea at school. Whenever I was sick, my mom made me a cup of tea to make me feel better. Whenever I see PG Tips tea bags, I am reminded of my mom. All four of my mom’s grandparents came to Canada from England, and we’ve kept the tea-drinking tradition alive here.

The founder and CEO, Bala Sarda, was 26 when he created Vahdam in India. His family has been growing tea for a few generations. Almost all of the teas are from India, however, the matcha is from Shizuoko, Japan. Shizuoko matcha is the golden standard of matcha.

Big companies such as Oprah Loves, TechCrunch, and Forbes have been talking about Vahdam. The international market has perhaps provided Bala Sarda with more success than the domestic Indian market. Bala started to see more financial success when he decided to promote his true authentic self as a fourth generation tea farmer from India. However, the tea market in India is much more crowded than the tea market abroad, so most of his customers are foreign.

Canada used to have a popular American tea shop chain called Teavana. Now Teavana is limited to selling at Starbucks in Canada. I felt annoyed by Teavana for measuring in American Imperial ounces, rather than a Metric gram. I am terrible at conceptualizing how much an ounce is. Teavana also required that each customer bought a minimum amount for purchase.

Well, my broke self had better luck at David’s Tea. The prices were similar to those of Teavana’s. However, the quality was much better, and they were a Canadian company who measured tea in grams, and they had no minimum purchase. Unfortunately, David’s Tea, the Quebec tea shop chain, was only located in shopping malls. As such, thirsty shoppers were always crowded at David’s tea before the pandemic. However, a few months into the pandemic, they were insolvent and could only sell online.

I wanted a tea shop that was different this time. Suddenly, I kept seeing all of these adverts for Vahdam on Instagram. I figured I’d better try it out. I bought their matcha first because it is actually from Japan. Matcha is extremely hard on the stomach if it is not high quality. This matcha did not make me nauseous. Next I tried Vadham’s classic turmeric and ayurvedic rose green tea. Yeah, so, I’m kind of hooked.

The classic turmeric is delicious in a latte. I can tell the difference between Vahdam’s turmeric and turmeric from my local grocery store. Vahdam’s is so much better. As for the ayurvedic rose green tea, it is more soothing. I’m sure that’s because ashwaganda, an ayurvedic herb for anxiety, is one of many ingredients.

Vahdam, on a side note, is carbon dioxide neutral, as well as plastic neutral. They promote physical wellness and environmental wellness. All of the tea farmers are paid fairly, as well, and their children are going to school thanks to our purchases.

Vahdam sells black, chai, oolong, green, white, matcha, and turmeric. They are organic, which means that the leaves are not genetically modified in the tea farms.

I would recommend going to Vahdam’s Amazon, if you live in Canada or another country in which it is expensive to ship the teas. If this is not the case, Vahdam’s website is right here.