Pandemic brews trouble for Irani cafes in Hyderabad

Already facing an existential threat, Irani tea cafes across the city are being forced to hike prices, including that of the city’s favourite beverage.

Hyderabad: What’s a day in Hyderabad that goes by without a cup of simmering hot Irani chai?
Now, even that part of the ethos of this city, the piping hot energy that came in a cup and to which Hyderabad has been waking up for generations, is getting affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Already facing an existential threat, Irani tea cafes across the city are being forced to hike prices, including that of the city’s favourite beverage. A cup of Irani chai, which used to come at Rs 10 a full cup, and Rs 8 for the more popular ‘single chai’, is now being sold at Rs 15 and Rs 10.

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Aslam Bin Abood of Nimrah Hotel, a popular Irani chai joint at Charminar in Old City, says hoteliers suffered huge losses during the lockdown and were still trying to come out of the financial crisis.

“Prices of ingredients also increased and workers are demanding a wage hike to compensate the loss of work during the lockdown. Milk suppliers too have hiked the prices. To tide over the crisis, a hike was inevitable,” says Abood.

On an average, a small restaurant sells around 2,500 cups of tea a day, while hotels on main thoroughfares sell a few hundred more.

“Sales depend on the location and patronage of the customers,” says Mohammed Mohsin, another Irani café manager. Post the lockdown, most cafés have done away with the ceramic cup and saucer and are instead using disposable cups, which in turn are an additional expense.
“The bigger cup costs 65 paise, while the smaller one comes at 35 paise,” adds Mohsin.

Mohammed Amair Khan, a manager at Al Safa Hotel in Vijayanagar Colony, says post the Covid-19 lockdown, when cafés reopened, there was literally no business as people were sceptic. One reason was the fear of the virus while another issue was that not many could sit around a table for the regular chai and discussions they were used to for decades.

Though people have slowly started feeling free and are returning to cafes, the losses have been so heavy that the little cup has become a little more precious.

 

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