A Year in Review - 2022!

What a year 2022 has been! From the coming out of the depths of COVID this year we didn’t know what this year had in store for us! It’s been a strange but incredible year for us and for our community.

Each year, as things are slowing down, we like to take a moment to reflect. The Chai Walli team have seen some great things happen this year! So please, make yourself a cup of your favourite chai and come on this reminiscent journey with us.

• We sent chai to Japan, Canada, America, Norway, Singapore, Thailand and of course all over Australia!
• We welcomed Rhea to the Chai Walli team who was a long term customer and had placed 50 online orders with us so we had to hire her! She has since probably placed 50-100 more orders!
• We bid farewell to our long term employee Georgina from the team as she landed a graduate job in an architectural firm.
• We welcomed Liz to the team who’s been a joy to work with.
• We hosted and ran an incredible International Women’s Day event at the Little BIG House in Summer Hill where Uppma facilitated an inclusive discussion around gender parity and community and Wei Yee ran a lovely yoga class.
• We had a belated 2021 Christmas Party with a super fun Boat Party and self drove the boat around the Sydney harbour. 

• We were featuring as Gourmet Traveller’s favourite chai in their Five of A Kind feature!
• CultureAMP engaged us to run a private virtual Art of Chai workshop for 50 of their employees across Australia which Uppma ran for them.
• Welcomed Georgia as a casual member to the Chai Walli team to assist us with running our markets.
• We had a lovely team event with a tea tasting experience at Tea Angle. 

• The Chai Walli team had a successful EOFY warehouse stocktake and counted 27,000 products! 
• Uppma took her ocean swimming to the next level and participated in three ocean swim races in Sydney and Noosa!

• Rhea had an incredible violin performance as part of her orchestra and we supported her by getting tickets to see her perform at the Tom Mann Theatre.

• Allens Law Firm engaged us to help send 150 Chai Starter Kits to their Cultural Awareness Committee across different locations in Australia. Here’s how we did it.
• Google engaged Uppma to run a private Art of Chai workshop for one of their teams in Australia!
• Deakin University engaged us to create 1,000 units of a Deakin University Chai Walli chai blend. So we created an Australian Native Masala Chai blend which brought out the flavours of our Indigenous land with the traditional spices of India. Read all about how we did it here. They gifted these blends to their stakeholders and community and Janice from the Chai Walli team played a massive part in helping us design these!
• AsiaLinks engaged Uppma to run a virtual Chai Masterclass for their AsiaLink Leaders Summit for the third year in a row. The Chai Walli team also sent their 50 leaders with Chai Starter Kits!
• 4A Gallery engaged us to run a chai activation for TextaQueen’s Bollywoodn’t exhibition at their Haymarket gallery which is the only Asia Contemporary Arts gallery in Australia! 
• Shop Front Arts, after seeing our traditional chai bar at 4A, engaged us to also bring a chai activation experience to their exhibition called Tea and Whispers which showcased stories of queer South Asian’s from Sydney’s west!
• Uppma had faith in the amazing Chai Walli team and went on a well deserved holiday to Canada with her husband and her mum to visit family, go hiking and watch some ice hockey! Uppma also was invited to give a talk about leadership in Vancouver while she was there.

• Atlassian hired our chai gear to run their very own Chai Walli Chai Bar for Diwali!
• Including all the purchases that were made online and wholesale, we sold enough tea to provide a total of approximately 250,000 serves of tea this year!
• We launched the official Chai Walli Australian Native blend and our Classic Punjabi Cha blends and YOU HAVE BEEN LOVING THEM!
• Uppma was nominated and featured in the Indiaspora Social Entrepreneurs List!
• And in case you don’t know about this, there’s a mural of Uppma on the wall at Newtown (Sydney) IGA for the International Women’s Day honour roll.
• We ran a successful Chai Walli Warehouse Christmas Market for the third year in a row over three years and it was incredible. Check it out here!
• We celebrated this crazy year by having the Chai Walli Christmas Party at Gunners Barracks with a delicious High Tea!
• And the most amazing achievement, we survived the year! Woo! 

Thank you for being a part of our year! We couldn't do what we do without the loyal support of our amazing Chai Walli community, which is full of the most beautiful people. Thank you. On behalf of the Chai Walli team we hope that you, your family and colleagues have a lovely festive season break. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

xx The Chai Walli team