Alum’s Chai Start-Up Has Personal Roots and a Sustainable Vision

But ultimately it centers around a simple—and personal—place.

“Chai represents home, and Chai Five works as my love letter to my grandmother’s Ayurvedic healing traditions,” says Joshi, who completed her master’s degree in international policy studies at the Middlebury Institute in 2011.

A key influence for her growing business was her “Naniba” (Hindi for grandma). 

“Her chai is ingrained in my memory from childhood… It was always uplifting, nourishing and restorative—the taste, the aroma, everything about it was low-key magical.”

Joshi carried these formative experiences through her travels across 35 countries and all seven continents.

“I found two things that always seem to connect people across cultures: a cup of tea and a high five,” Joshi says. “Chai Five is like a high five for your body, mind, and spirit.”

The First Single-Origin, Ethically Sourced Chai

If inspiration for the project was straightforward, making it a reality has been anything but—from seeking out heirloom chai varieties to paying fair trade up front to farmers in India, Sri Lanka, and Zanzibar.

“When I tell friends, family, and customers how Chai Five is the first 100 percent single-origin, ethically and sustainably crafted heirloom chai, the general response is, ‘It’s about time,’” she says. “There has been little to no innovation in the tea [and] chai industry in the past 300 years—there’s only been degradation, colonization, and exploitation—so I’m building the chai company I wish existed, one that respects tradition, farmers, our health, and our environment.”

A Company Infused with International Experiences

Even as she outlines where she sources, say, her heirloom Ceylon cinnamon or wild cardamom—and how her partner farms use single-origin and regenerative practices designed to maximize worker and soil health—she encounters doubters.

“I invite skeptics to follow the journey of our ingredients, to taste [and] feel the difference firsthand,” she says. “This isn’t just about ethical sourcing buzzwords; it’s about preserving biodiversity and traditional knowledge that’s at risk of being lost forever.”

Joshi credits Middlebury with a major role in transforming her personal passion into a hit at Old Monterey Farmers Market, then a viable social enterprise. 

“I wouldn’t have had the global perspective or encouragement without Middlebury,” said Joshi, whose role placing students in the Ambassador Corps program helped her get selected as a Fulbright Scholar conducting research on agroforestry in the Brazilian Amazon. 

“That fundamentally shaped my understanding of regenerative agriculture and traditional knowledge systems,” she says.

She then landed a Boren Fellowship in Mozambique, journeying up the Indian Ocean coast to Zanzibar, where she connected with spice farmers practicing centuries-old techniques. 

“Without my public policy career and my international experiences facilitated by the Middlebury Institute, I wouldn’t have had the vision to create a global impact,” she says, “or the knowledge to navigate building the global, ethical supply chains that make Chai Five unique.”