According to co-founder Jay Sotta, the brand is the youth wing of Aditya Trading Company, which owns the Arati Tea brand and exports more than 3m kg of tea per year to over 21 countries.
“My family has been into the tea business for 100 years. I’m the fifth generation in the business, where we are focusing on innovative hot beverages that can build a consumption habit for tomorrow,” he told FoodNavigator-Asia at Gulfood 2025.
In fact, Cup-ji’s ready-to-sip beverage cup won the Best Packaging and Design category at the trade show’s Innovation Awards this year.
These cups come in three variations, namely Karak or chai tea (original, masala, cardamom, saffron, ginger, lemongrass), coffee (cappuccino, mocha, hazelnut, vanilla), and hot beverages (hot chocolate, turmeric latte).
“There are pre-mixed whole tea leaves or coffee at the bottom [of the cup], covered by a paper filter mesh. There is also an aluminium foil, keeping it airtight. You just need to peel it off, add boiling water up till the mesh, swirl the cup five times, fill it up with hot water, and your tea or coffee is ready to drink.
“There’s no added sugar and not more than 8 calories in each cup. It’s a healthy beverage that can be consumed on the go, while you’re working, going out, driving etc. The concept is to provide a convenient, consistent beverage for the on-the-go lifestyles that we’re living nowadays.”
The cups are available in different packaging sizes, including jar (seven to 10 cups), hexabox (five to seven cups), and dispenser (five cups).
“The consumer pack usually has five cups in a hexagonal box with caps and stirrers, so you can just take one cup, add sugar if you’d like, use a stirrer, put a cap, and have it on the go. For the cup dispenser format, you can hang the dispenser and remove one cup at a time easily.”
Sotta added that despite products with similar packaging emerging in the market, the brand is confident about its product quality and unique Indian tea flavour.
“While there are a lot of people who might have tried to replicate the concept, what we have done to ensure that the shelf life [for our product] is better. We applied a patented technology to create an airtight environment at the bottom of the cup to give the premix a longer shelf life.
“Being from a tea family and having the expertise in sourcing the right kind of tea from India, we can offer the authentic, high-quality Indian taste in our products that no one else can.”
Active expansion
Although the beverage cups are primarily a consumer product, Cup-ji is also selling them to corporate companies in India for their staff pantries, a channel that the brand is keen to explore as it seeks global expansion.
“The cups are available in Dubai’s West Zone supermarkets. And we ship to countries like Saudi Arabia, Australia, Kuwait, Qatar, Japan, and Iraq. After the first day of Gulfood, we already have two container orders for Japan and Kuwait.
“We are also speaking to a few customers in the US and Canada, so you may see us in more countries by the end of this year,” Sotta revealed.
Apart from the retail channel, the firm also does private labelling, with one of its biggest clients being from the UAE.
In addition, its R&D team is working on extending the shelf life of the product from the current 12 months to 18 months.
“Our team is already developing cold beverages in this format, such as iced teas, for the summer. So, you’d just need to add cold water and the iced beverage will be ready.”
