Chai by Mira is an ode to the ritual of tea, the healing world of spices and the importance of heritage. Mira Manek, the founder of Chai by Mira, was inspired by her mother and grandmother’s love for food, their story of migration, and how food, culture and language remained an unchanged constant in their life, even today. Chai by Mira was born from Mira’s own rediscovery of her heritage food and recipes.

Having lived abroad for many years, Mira rediscovered the food she grew up eating when she moved back to London. With fresh eyes and curiosity, a background in journalism and a love for writing, she wrote her first cookbook Saffron Soul, bringing together delicious heritage recipes, simple, homemade and Gujarati, the recipes cooked by her family even today, as well as some of her own inspired creations. Saffron Soul is a vegetarian, almost plant-based cookbook, healthy, simple, and full of flavour.

Having hosted supperclubs and collaborated with prestigious hotels and restaurants in London from the Holborn Dining Rooms to 108 Brasserie and Dalloway Terrace, Mira then launched her own healthy Ayurvedic café in Kingly Court, Soho, calling it Chai by Mira.

This was also when Mira’s second book Prajna: Ayurvedic Rituals for Happiness was published. Prajna is a guide to create your own toolkit of happiness with the book divided into Morning, Afternoon and Evening rituals, inspiration for everyday wellness rooted in Ayurveda and journeys into the spiritual landscape of India.

With the growing popularity of the chai menu at Mira’s café and thereafter with the pandemic, Mira took the chai online so that customers could make their favourite chai at home. She was already supplying the chai spice blends to a few cafes and this began to grow. The Chai by Mira spice blends are now used by over 300 cafes and restaurants in the UK and abroad.

While growing her chai brand, Mira wrote and published her third and most recent book The Book of Chai: History Stories and Recipes, a love letter to spices and to India. This book journeys through the rich history of chai and the Indianisation of this relatively new drink – new in the way that we know it at least - which has become synonymous with Indian culture and hospitality.

Woven through the entire book are intricate stories of Mira’s journeys around India from when she was a child to now, along with tales of her grandmother’s childhood in a village in Gujarat, milking the cows, playing in the fields and her own memories of her nani making chai for the women passing by on their way to fetch water. Read Mira’s favourite Chai Story here: ‘My great-great-grandmother’s heirlooms’ - how Mira’s grandmother gifted her the silver janjri, or ankle bells, that once belonged to her own grandmother, passed to her when she left the village for Africa as a teenager. An heirloom from Mira’s great-great-grandmother. Get the book here.

Mira is now currently working on her fourth book. You can follow Mira on Instagram for wellness tips, inspired writings and recipes.