Reluctant Trading Experiment Interview
Scott Eirinberg, Reluctant Trading Experiment
Hi chai enthusiasts! Happy Chai Month 2021!!! All month long I’ll be posting all the chai content for you guys (including some awesome recipes). New posts will be up every weekend!
I have been waiting for this since the end of Chai Month last year, seeing how excited you got for the best szn of the year had me planning all the special thing happening for 2021 to make it the best one yet! Be sure to use the hashtag on Instagram #ChaiMonth2021 so I can see your pictures and share them on my stories!
I’m back with a very special interview series. If you haven’t already heard, I Try Chai has launched our first chai sampler box for Chai Month! Included is ITC’s top 3 chais as seen on the blog.
One of the very best chais included in this set is from The Reluctant Trading Experiment, their Bollywood Theater Masala Chai (which you can read my review of here). This chai is soooo good it won I Try Chai’s Chai of The Year 2019 .
To let you guys get to know the brand a little better, I reached out to Scott Eirinberg from Reluctant Trading, and he was kind enough to take the time to do a little interview with I Try Chai! He also sent some photos which will be featured throughout this post, along with his captions.
Jasmine (I Try Chai): Hi Scott! Thanks again for agreeing to do this interview with me for I Try Chai.
Scott Eirinberg (Reluctant Trading): I'm thrilled and honored to do an interview with you. Happy to be part of what you are doing!
That's me in the gray zip top holding a cup of chai on the streets of Jodhpur with the Chai Wallah. People would come from all over to buy his chai. He even had drive-up service. A guy on a motorbike stopped by and the chai wallah handed him a plastic bag of chai to go.
Jasmine: Let’s jump right into it! I’ve been a big fan of your chai for years now, but for my readers who don’t know you, please tell us more about your role in the business.
Scott: I’m the owner and the founder, but I also do a little bit of everything. I do product sourcing, marketing, photography, copywriting, merchandising, accounting, and janitorial services, LOL. You name it, I do it. We are a small business.
Jasmine: That’s great! So what’s the backstory behind Reluctant Trading Experiment? How did it get started?
Scott: I started my first business in 1996. It was called The Land of Nod. It was a home furnishings business for kids’ rooms. We became partners with Crate and Barrel in 2000 and they introduced me to many of their partners around the world.
I frequently traveled to India to develop textiles for The Land of Nod. In 2003, I met a guy named Divakar who was running a textiles company. We became fast friends. In 2010, Crate and Barrel bought The Land of Nod and I was looking for what I would do in the next chapter of my life.
At the same time, Divakar was looking to expand beyond textiles. We stayed in touch, and in 2012 he started telling me about some Tellicherry peppercorns growing in the jungles of southern India. I didn’t know a Tellicherry peppercorn from a telephone pole. I had no interest in pepper or the spice business. I was Reluctant with a capital “R”.
But then Divakar sent me a sample of those Tellicherry peppercorns. They were unlike anything I had ever experienced. Those peppercorns literally were life changing for me. The Reluctant Trading Experiment was born.
We made a little video about how Reluctant Trading started that went viral. Thought you might enjoy it. Here’s a link.
Jasmine: Wow!! What a unique startup story. And look at where you are now, not just the amazing peppercorns and spices (which I have also bought and love) , but incredible chai as well.
So I’m curious, what are the values/philosophy behind Reluctant Trading?
Scott: I started thinking about why that pepper was so much better than anything else I had ever had. I realized that the spice business in the United States was broken.
Spices had become a commodity product that were just bought and sold at the lowest prices. Because spices don’t “expire” at any point, businesses can sell spices that are ancient. Most spices sit in warehouses for untold years before they are sold. Most spices in this country are stale and tasteless by the time you open them.
I started thinking about offering Farm to Table Spices. Importing directly from the sources and then selling spices quickly to get them into people’s homes while they are still fresh. We’ve been doing it for almost 9 years and our customers can’t believe the difference.
We pay more for our spices at the start to make sure we get the primo stuff, and then we just cut out all the extra time from farm to table. That’s our secret sauce. I mean secret spice.
Jasmine: I really notice the difference of flavor with the fresh spices. That’s what made your chai stick out to me in comparison with all the others I’ve tried.
So why chai? What got you interested in chai?
Scott: Since I’ve always been fascinated with India, and since most of our spices come fresh and direct from India, Masala Chai was a natural extension of how we started.
I happened to be on vacation in Portland, Oregon, when I stumbled on a restaurant called Bollywood Theater.
A chef named Troy MacLarty had launched the restaurant selling all sorts of different classic Indian street food dishes. Chef MacLarty spent months researching and eating street food all over India before opening Bollywood Theater.
That is Chef Troy MacLarty the man behind Bollywood Theater restaurants in Portland, Oregon.
That photo is from our comprehensive tasting of Chai from around the USA. After doing our taste test, we felt that we could put together a more balanced, delicious chai.
I was blown away by the care, food, and details of the restaurant. To this day, I’ve never seen and tasted anything like it in the United States. If you like Indian food, you must go. It’s a gem.
I became friends with Chef MacLarty and I pitched him the idea of working with him on a co-branded Reluctant Trading Bollywood Theater Masala Chai and also making some of his other spice blends with him.
Chef MacLarty and I taste-tested all the Masala chais in the market that we could get our hands on. We felt like they all were too forward in one ingredient. Some were way too heavy with cinnamon, others had too much green cardamom, etc.
We wanted our chai to be authentic yet balanced without any single ingredient overpowering the next. We feel like we achieved our goal.
Jasmine: I have heard of Bollywood Theater, it’s a goal of mine to make it there one of these days. I agree, balance is vital in any good chai.
When it comes to chai, there are many different types out there, each choosing to enhance a different ingredient/flavor. What is your favorite part of chai?
Scott: Yes, this idea of enhancing or accentuating a single ingredient in the Masala Chai is something we definitely did NOT want to do. We are really proud of our Masala Chai being well-balanced where it is difficult to pick out any single ingredient.
My favorite part of Masala chai is that it is a distinct drink. Nothing else like it. It’s warming and spicy, yet you get that caffeine kick too. It wakes you up and keeps you focused.
This photo was taken while we were researching Masala Chai in India. Just two guys enjoying chai on the streets of Mumbai. Chai is part of every day life in India. Most of the Masala Chai on the streets is very simply made with just a couple of ingredients. We never tasted anything quite as complex as the one we make. Photo Credit: Alan Shortall
I love how when you open our chai, the ingredients are so fresh that you can smell it from over two feet away. That’s a testament to our “Farm to Table Spices” concept.
Jasmine: I wish that scent came in a candle! And it has been a replacement for coffee for me and many others because of that caffeine content from the tea.
You’re clearly doing something right when it comes to chai. This is one of my favorites I’ve ever had. It was named I Try Chai’s Chai of the Year 2019.
So tell me, what specifically makes your chai better than all the others being sold out there?
Scott: Certainly, the freshness that I just mentioned is a big reason. If you don’t start with well-selected spices, you aren’t going to have a good product.
That's my partner, Divakar at his facility in India. He is holding a bowl of our masala chai blend. Divakar sources all of our Indian spices. He cuts and blends the chai for us in India.
My partner, Divakar in India sources all of the ingredients fresh and direct from the farms. We pay more for the best stuff.
The ingredients are literally hand cut and expertly blended at Divakar’s facility in India.
We then bring the Masala Chai in fresh and direct so nothing ever sits. And we sell through the chai quickly so that it’s super fresh when you open it.
And of course, we have an amazing recipe. Chef MacLarty is a student of Indian food. He has traveled there so many times and knows just what he’s doing.
I’d say of the many blends that we sell, our Masala Chai might be the item I’m most proud of. It showcases so many of our strengths in one product.
Making our masala chai at home
The funny thing is, both Chef MacLarty and I have traveled extensively through India and we both feel that we haven’t tasted a Masala Chai as tasty as the one we offer. Most Masala Chai sold on the streets of India have a lot less ingredients than the version that we sell.
Jasmine: Your recipe along with the quality is unmatched. I love how I can see the spices right there in the bag, seeing and tasting the freshness.
If you could sum up your chai in just 5 words, how would you describe it?
Scott: Delicious, Authentic, Complex, Warming, Bold.
Jasmine: I like that you used bold as one of those words. I personally love my chai to be spicy and to have layers. Like we talked about earlier, it’s no fun if you can only taste one ingredient. The balance and strength of these spices is why I recommend your chai so highly to readers, friends, and family!
My last question for you is, if someone is reading this and has never tried chai before, what would you say to them? Why should they try chai?
Scott: First, I would tell them that the word “chai” just means “tea.” So if you go to India and you order a “chai” you will just get a cup of regular tea.
If you say you’d like a “Chai Tea,” you are saying you want a “Tea Tea.” Kind of funny.
But if you order “Masala Chai,” you will get the drink we are talking about. But believe it or not, “Masala Chai” is not widely served across India. It is a regional drink with many variations. There is no one accepted formulation.
Why should you try “Masala Chai?” Well, if you are interested in expanding your horizons, you enjoy trying new and delicious things, you enjoy spicy food, you enjoy the effects of caffeine, then I’d say you will love our Masala Chai. Here’s a link to our Masala Chai on ReluctantTrading.com. Thanks Jasmine.
If you’d like to sample The Reluctant Trading Experiment’s Bollywood Theater Masala Chai, you can find it in the brand new You Try Chai - Chai Sampler Box. Featured alongside my other favorite chais, you’ll get 3 oz of each to try for yourself.
This chai box makes for a great treat to your favorite chai enthusiast, or yourself! Find it here.