Meet The Entrepreneurs Behind The Chai Company

The Chai Company mobile trailer serving in the Historic Third Ward. Photo by Lauren Hafeman on Nov. 6, 2026.

During a late-night conversation in June 2025, brothers Chayank and Krishna Pawar discussed an idea: “What if we start our own chai company in Milwaukee?” The discussion ebbed from how young people seem to be leaving town to launch businesses in places like Chicago and flowed toward how there was a gap in Milwaukee’s market for authentic Indian chai. Drawing on their own desi cultural roots and hoping to establish a Milwaukee-made business, they registered The Chai Company LLC an hour into their conversation.

One month later, in a leap of faith — literally — they launched The Chai Company as a humble wooden pop-up cart at Masjid Al-Huda, a community mosque where they pray, serving chai sourced from India, matcha sourced from Japan and coffee sourced from Milwaukee. Today, they’ve replaced the cart with an endearing green mobile trailer, have a growing fan base and remain dedicated to their goal of opening a brick-and-mortar café.

Their drinks are intentionally infused with flavors typically found in Indian cuisine, such as rose, saffron and cardamom. On their current menu, they offer both karak and irani chai alongside vanilla, strawberry and cream, and mango sticky rice matcha. An Americano, cortado, cappuccino and brown sugar shaken specialty coffee round out their java offerings.

Since The Chai Company’s inception, Chayank has been documenting its story with photos and videos on social media. In the early days, he introduced the company with conversational videos he filmed in his car. He posted lighthearted skits. With time, he shared photos from pop-up events and announced weekly locations with aesthetically pleasing digital posters. In July, one year after launching, he teased the trailer purchase with high-quality campaign videos produced by freelance videographer John Akgun. As the business grew, so did the company’s online following — or perhaps it was the other way around.

In a conversation with Urban Milwaukee, Chayank said the company’s online presence is another way it is setting itself apart.

“A lot of the businesses in Milwaukee are just older. They are run by people from older generations who don’t take advantage of social media,” he said. “Also, I don’t think people have a lot of room right now to care about businesses they know nothing about. What I do think people care about is the story behind a business — about the people and culture behind a business.”

Chayank said several times a day, new customers will mention they discovered The Chai Company through social media.

“Customers will come and know me and Krishna by name. They know our story before they ever buy something from us,” he said. “I think when there’s a story out there people can connect themselves to, they are more likely to support it. Empathy is great, especially in a country right now where the norm is that people aren’t seen or heard.”

The approach of building a business and brand online as much as it’s built offline is happening all over, said Chayank, and young entrepreneurs are especially good at it.

“When you look at young business owners in bigger cities like Seattle, New York or Chicago, they are creators. It’s a new generation that uses every single outlet they can to put themselves out there,” he said.

But his decision to document the company’s story online is not simply to get people to spend money, Chayank said.

“It’s about storytelling to create community,” he said. “The word community is a catchphrase these days, and a lot of places will just throw it out there without actually having done something for the community. But anyone who follows us knows every time we get the opportunity, we are doing free giveaways. We are handing out 100 matchas just to brighten people’s days.”

With that mindset, Chayank said he hopes a brick-and-mortar location will allow them to create more community connections. He aims for it to be an uplifting third space, where people and culture are valued. Online, he’s calling that goal “Phase 3” and hopes people continue to support and follow along.

The brick-and-mortar location will also provide further stability for representing Indian culture, said Chayank, noting that the trailer has had some recent mechanical issues, which he also documented online.

“There’s so much representation for different ethnicities across Milwaukee, but Indian ethnicity always seems to take a knee. So somebody has to take charge on Indian representation, and that’s what The Chai Company is doing,” he said.

He shared that he’s on the lookout for open spaces in the Historic Third Ward.

Follow The Chai Company’s journey and learn weekly pop-up locations and hours on its Instagram page.