Oregon Chai is a company that markets a line of chai

Masala chai

Masala chai is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs.-Terminology:-Plain chai:...

 beverage products. Oregon Chai’s primary product is a concentrate

Concentrate

A concentrate is a form of substance which has had the majority of its base component removed. Typically this will be the removal of water from a solution or suspension such as the removal of water from fruit juice...

 designed to make a hot, tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

-based beverage prepared with steamed milk

Milk

Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...

, vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...

, a sweetener (usually sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 or honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

), and other spices. It is distinct from chais deriving directly from the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

 because the dominance of spices like cardamom

Cardamom

Cardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds...

, pepper

Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...

, and nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...

 is muted. Some would say that Oregon Chai defined the taste of chai to westernized markets because they were the first to produce this type of sweet, milk-based chai that is now very popular and has since been mimicked by various other companies, although Oregon Chai still controls over 60% of the chai tea market share .

Oregon Chai – The Company

Oregon Chai the company started in 1994 by co-founders Heather Howitt, Tedde McMillen, Carla Powell, Brian Ross and Lori Spencer Woolfrey, and quickly grew out of its relatively small market in local Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 cafés

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

. They quickly realized that they had stumbled onto a hit product; sales in 1996 rose by 469%. By 2000, sales were over $15 million and accounts ranging from its original Portland connections all the way to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

.

Story Behind Oregon Chai

It all started when Heather Howitt was hiking through the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

. She bought chai (in many Asian countries, “chai” or a variant therof means "tea," and therefore the term "chai tea" is redundant) from a village because there was no latte available. Twelve cups later, she had completely fallen in love with the drink. Initially, she was able to buy a similar product in Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...

 where she was attending school, but could no longer find it at any local cafes or stores in Portland, OR. After looking at “tons and tons of Asian chai recipes” says Howitt in a 1997 issue of Portland Business Journal  and experimenting for three years, had developed what she thought to be perfect blend of vanilla, cinnamon

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...

, ginger

Ginger

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....

 and honey in a concentrate designed to be mixed with equal parts of milk. It had a more “dessert-y” taste than she originally had tasted in India, but thought it would please her American market, which was in the middle of the coffee-shop

Coffeehouse

A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...

 explosion.

Howitt took out a $3,000 loan to pay for expenses and teamed up with her mother and family friend Carla to help produce the tea concentrate. Their first commercial production took place in a church kitchen, but at the end of 1994 the company, Oregon Chai, had accumulated $20,000 in sales and more importantly started building a strong loyal fan-base.

By the end of 1995, revenues were over $200,000 and continuing to rise . The fastest growing coffee business in the world, and currently the largest coffee related chain in the world, Starbucks

Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...

 offered to buy the company's recipe, but Howitt declined on behalf of Oregon Chai, according to Inc. magazine

Inc. (magazine)

Inc. magazine, founded in 1979 and based in New York City, is a monthly publication focused on growing companies. The magazine publishes an annual list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., the "Inc...

.

A more sophisticated business structure had already been implemented from a mother-daughter team working from a bedroom, but when the new employee, Brian Ross, saw triple digit revenues by the second full year, he knew that an even more bold business plan would have to be developed. A board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 including Joel Lewis, an advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 executive, and Dwight Sinclair, a broker

Broker

A broker is a party that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller, and gets a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal...

, made it clear they were not content to see this company tread water when massive expansion

Business cycle

The term business cycle refers to economy-wide fluctuations in production or economic activity over several months or years...

 was possible. Shortly after the board was established, the distributor list grew from six to 130.

Oregon Chai Values Community and Society

Oregon Chai has participated in numerous community events. The seventh annual celebrity

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 spelling bee

Spelling bee

A spelling bee is a competition where contestants, usually children, are asked to spell English words. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States....

 was held on Jan 25, 2007 where all proceeds from a cocktail hour, silent and live auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

, and a spelling bee featuring local Portland celebrities were given to Portland Public Schools. They also support Schoolhouse Supplies, which is a non-profit

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 free store filled with classroom supplies for schoolteachers in Portland.

Oregon Chai also supports SOLV

SOLV

SOLV is an environmental non-profit organization working throughout the U.S. state of Oregon whose mission statement is: "SOLV builds community through volunteer action to preserve this treasure called Oregon"...

, which is a program that gives citizens of Oregon a medium in which to volunteer

Volunteering

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...

 on projects aimed at connecting the health of communities

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 with Oregon’s renowned natural beauty. SOLV (originally Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism) was started in 1969 by former Governor Tom McCall

Tom McCall

Thomas Lawson McCall was an American politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the 30th Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, he grew up there and in Central Oregon before attending the University of Oregon...

, but has recently redefined their objectives to encompass a broader range of goals.

On top of community involvement, Oregon Chai is also dedicated to protecting and conserving the natural environment

Natural environment

The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

 whenever possible. All dry mix cartons are made with recycled cardboard. Using far less material and using less energy to manufacture

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

, fill, ship

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

, and store, aseptic

Asepsis

Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing contaminants or, preventing contact with microorganisms. The term asepsis often refers to those practices used to promote or induce asepsis in an operative field in surgery or medicine to prevent infection...

 packaging is at the core of their efforts . Organic

Organic food

Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.For the...

 ingredients

Ingredient

An ingredient is a substance that forms part of a mixture . For example, in cooking, recipes specify which ingredients are used to prepare a specific dish. Many commercial products contain a secret ingredient that is purported to make them better than competing products...

 are also used in every product line in order to discourage the use of harmful pesticides

Pesticide

Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...

, both for the consumer

Consumer

Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...

’s sake as well as the ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

’s.

Oregon Chai – the Product

The company of Oregon Chai is very successful, but their success is primarily centered on a single product – a special recipe of chai. Some would argue that this recipe has redefined the way the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 envisions the taste of chai. Much sweeter than that of the typical Indian blends, it uses mainly honey and vanilla to sweeten the black tea

Black tea

Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties.All four varieties are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the...

.

Concentrates

Chai Tea Latte concentrate is the first way that Heather Howitt delivered her recipe to consumers. It is a concentrate designed to be mixed with equal parts of milk, and should be steamed with an espresso wand (also should be refrigerated when not in use). The ingredients of the original blend are water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

, organic evaporated cane juice, honey, organic spices, organic black tea, ginger, organic vanilla, organic natural flavors and citric acid

Citric acid

Citric acid is a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative/conservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks...

 and has 30–35 mg of caffeine

Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. Caffeine is found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves, and fruit of some plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants...

 per serving (same as a lightly brewed cup of black tea) . Since the creation of the company, many other blend variations of the Chai Tea Latte have stemmed from the original.

Mixes

Oregon Chai mixes were designed to taste like a milk based drink but by only adding hot water to a powder mix. These can be used in places where a concentrate cannot be kept cold or when milk is not accessible. The ingredients of the original blend Oregon Chai mix are sugar, dried whole milk, dried nonfat milk, dried honey, tapioca maltodextrin

Maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch by partial hydrolysis and is usually found as a creamy-white hygroscopic spraydried powder. Maltodextrin is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose, and might be either moderately sweet or...

, natural flavors, dried black tea, and salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

 . Variations of the original blend have also been created, however the list is not as extensive as the concentrate option.

Singles

The newest addition to the Oregon Chai line of products, Chai Single is a powder, similar to the mixes, but is sold individually. A single serving of chai tea designed to be mixed with a bottle of water offers an option for those who not only do not have milk but also have no way of heating water. All three flavors are calorie-free and sugar-free

Sugar substitute

A sugar substitute is a food additive that duplicates the effect of sugar in taste, usually with less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general, called artificial sweeteners....

.