Matt Chitharanjan: Blue Tokai is mass-premium, while Subko is niche premium
Matt Chitharanjan · Ep #22 | WTF are Craft Beverages? Nikhil ft. the Founders of Blue Tokai, Subko, Svami, and Mossant · Nikhil Kamath · Mar 3, 2025 · at 43:30
Matt Chitharanjan, co-founder of Blue Tokai, contrasts the brand positioning and accessibility of Blue Tokai versus fellow specialty coffee brand Subko.
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“We, I would say, are more mass premium. They're more niche premium. I think the customers are slightly, I mean, I would say we're more, we try to be more accessible.”
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More from Matt Chitharanjan
Chitharanjan: Average cafe customers do not care which estate coffee comes from
“The average customer walking to a cafe doesn't care that this coffee comes from the state ABC.”
Chitharanjan: Blue Tokai survey shows ₹250 is the consumer price sensitivity threshold
“So we've done a survey and it's two 50 rupees is kind of the, they won't notice anything up until two 50 rupees is above two 50 rupees, then they, then they'll start to pay attention.”
Chitharanjan: Record coffee bean prices only add 2–3 rupees per cafe cup
“In a coffee shop, even now, coffee prices are at a 50 year high right now. You know, add two, three rupees to the cost of a cup of coffee. So it's very easily absorbed in a coffee shop. In a packet of coffee, it's not very easily absorbed.”
Chitharanjan: 1,000 sq ft is the optimal coffee shop footprint
“2000, the capex becomes too large to fit it out. And the incremental revenue is not justifying the increase in rent as well. Below 800, then tables become occupied, and people don't want to wait for a coffee shop, though. If they see it's full, they'll just go…”
Chitharanjan: Indian coffee machines lag behind Chinese and European rivals
“Quality and consistency is not comparable to the equivalent Chinese or European manufacturers.”
Blue Tokai co-founder: Coffee growers doubted Indian consumers would pay for specialty coffee
“Even when we went and talked to the growers, they felt that Indian consumers weren't ready to pay for good quality coffee, that you'd have to cut it with Robusta or do a commodity Arabica offering in order to bring the price down so that you could get acceptan…”