Residence Mumbai, India Spouse(s) Girish Shah | Nationality Indian Alma mater WE School | |
Occupation Tea Sommelier and Founder of Radhikas Fine Teas and Whatnots | ||
Radhika Batra Shah is a tea sommelier and the founder of Radhikas Fine Teas and Whatnots, a retail company that sells teas, tisane and teaware gifts.
Radhika has been in the tea business since 2006. and runs an online tea store under the brand name Radhikas Fine Teas and Whatnots. She curates around 40 tea blends in a year for tea ceremonies, high tea parties and tea events.
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Early life and education
Radhika was born in Lucknow and brought up in Mumbai. She grew up in a Punjabi household having a strong chai culture and learnt tea etiquette at an early age.
She did her schooling from St. Joseph Convent School, Bandra and did MBA in Marketing from Welingkar Institute of Management.
Personal life
Radhika’s father Captain JV Batra is in the shipping business and her mother Manju Batra is a homemaker. Her younger brother Ritesh Batra is a film director. She is married to Girish Shah.
Career
Radhika started her career as a management trainee in Advertising with McCann Erickson in May 1998. She went on to work as an Assistant Marketing Manager with Trent Retail (TRENT: Westside) from October 2001 to October 2003. She left her corporate career to research tea and researched in China, India and Sri Lanka.
Tea Boutique: In 2006, she started Radhikas Fine Teas and Whatnots and opened a tea boutique called ‘Teacup’ in Bandra, Mumbai. She partnered with Mr. Sanjay Bansal of Ambootia Tea Group (well known as turnaround wizard in tea circles) to source teas. However, her tea boutique did not take off well and was shut in that same year.
Tea Ceremonies: Taj Group of Hotels once invited Radhika to give a tea etiquette and appreciation ceremony to their chefs and from there, the concept of tea ceremonies came to her mind. While she was already doing retail, she started hosting tea ceremonies. She has hosted tea ceremonies for various hotels, corporates, theatre events, art shows, the derby, etc.
Retail business: In February 2013, she launched Radhikas Fine Teas that are available at Nature’s Basket across India. Besides selling teas on her website, she has recently started retailing out her organic teas and tisanes on amazon.com.
Participation in Festivals & Events: Bandra store of Godrej Nature’s Basket conducted a tea ceremony in July 2011 hosted by Radhika Batra Shah to provide its shoppers a great opportunity to learn more about the fine teas. The tea ceremony conducted by arttd’inox at the opening of its new store at Lower Parel in December 2013 was also hosted by her along with Chetan Washikar, the chef of Sanjay Narang’s Mars Group. Café Zoe also invited her to host their Tea Tasting party in October 2013. She was even a part of Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, 2014.
Honours and awards
Also, she has been recognized as Young Women Achiever by Hi! Blitz in its March issue of 2013.
Media presence
Radhika has been featured in Times Now’s “The Foodie” show as an entrepreneur and tea expert. In the show, she teaches the art of brewing teas to the host Kunal Vijaykar.