Seven Tea Miles' First Winter
Sourabh Chalotra didn’t know anyone when he moved from India to Ottawa. When he arrived in 2015 to pursue his master’s in civil engineering at Carleton University, Chalotra was on his own. But once classes started, he made friends and began to find his way in a new city. “School is a great place because we had an orientation. So, yeah, it helped me a lot,” he says.
After graduating from Carleton, he found work with a construction company, but something wasn’t sitting right with him.
“Whatever you’re doing, you should be really happy doing [it],” he says. “Every night when you go to bed, you should be excited. I realized, it wasn't really happening with me, you know? It's my background, engineering, but somehow it was not working for me.”
The idea of starting a business was always in the back of his mind. Maybe something to do with food, he thought. He’d always loved cooking and making chai — something that reminded him of home. When his friends visited, Chalotra would make chai and eventually, it sparked something in him.
“They used to always [say] ‘Hey, you should open a chai store,’” he recalls. “They were just like joking around, while having fun, [but] I took it seriously.”
He soon made the decision to quit his job with the construction company and pursue a chai business.
“It was a huge task,” he says. “I saw a lot of hurdles, to be honest, since I had no support here. But somehow, smiling faces in Canada always kept me going. You know, people are happy and willing to help you, appreciate you.”
But where to start? He flew back to India to visit areas known for tea production, such as Assam, and learn more about chai. When he came back to Ottawa, he tackled the branding and marketing, recipe development and all the elements that would eventually make up his business, Seven Tea Miles. He brought the idea to his friend Chandan Dadral and together they opened a food truck in October 2021.
Before long, chai lovers were flocking to the truck on Merivale Road to get drinks and snacks. “We were overwhelmed with the response. It was so good and made me happy. That's how it all started,” Chalotra says.
There was just one problem: Winter. Ottawa’s severe cold meant that Chalotra couldn’t keep the truck open year-round. That was a major deciding factor in looking for a storefront.
“I feel there is something about a warm drink in the cold weather and I used to be so upset that we couldn’t do anything for our [customers] in winter,” he says.
In June 2023, Seven Tea Miles made the move to a bricks-and-mortar location in Westboro. Complete with a fi replace, the new spot has a warm, welcoming vibe that’s perfect for enjoying a hot cup of chai, “so people feel cosy, they feel like home. That’s the whole idea.”
And, to Chalotra’s genuine delight, the customers who came to the food truck followed him to the new location.
When asked to recommend the best drink order for the winter, Chalotra says there’s something for everyone. If you like warm spices, he recommends the “royal chai,” which is a blend of cloves, cinnamon, saffron, star anise, nutmeg, green cardamom and black pepper. If you want something simpler, go for the "regular chai,” which has just one spice: cardamom.
Chalotra and team create balanced, warm flavours with fresh spices and open tea leaves sourced from India, China and Japan, using Assam black tea as their base. But above all, Chalotra says love is the main ingredient, “because when we are making things, we feel we're making it for ourselves.” Plans are currently in the works to package their loose teas so customers can brew them at home.
Seven Tea Miles also offers cold drinks and flavourful street food snacks, such as a Smashed Samosa Bowl and Samosa Poutine.
Chalotra says the name Seven Tea Miles has meaning. Seven is a lucky number that also represents the seven main yoga chakras. The tea part is obvious and the word miles is there to represent the journey.
“[It’s a] journey towards happiness, completeness, positivity,” Chalotra says. He has come a long way since first arriving in Ottawa, but he says for him, “It’s not about the destination, it’s the journey.”
Seven Tea Miles
342 Richmond Rd., Ottawa, Ont.
seventeamiles.com | 613.761.7777 | @seventeamiles
