In her own words, Chloe Janson is “a career-driven professional by day and food blogger by night”.
There’s no question she’s still driven, but blogging is no longer her sole “food” pursuit: in 2016 Janson launched a niche business brewing chai concentrates.
While the exact origins of chai are unknown beyond its Indian roots, for Janson the quest into chai began after “a few too many sleepless nights”.
A fan of living a healthy lifestyle, Janson was also an aficionado of a stimulating, aroma-filled coffee. Too many, as it turned out.
She decided sleepless nights – from her busy schedule and caffeine overload – weren’t sustainable long term, and in 2015 Janson discovered chai as replacement for her beloved coffee. She hasn’t looked back.
Enchanted with the taste of chai, Janson “spent a lot of time in a chai laboratory” (her kitchen) experimenting with different spices and formulas.
Once she was happy the recipe of certified organic spices including cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves and loose-leaf black tea, was robust and replicable at quantity, Chai Addict was born in September 2016.
Janson spent the first year getting the brand known, attending markets all around Victoria.
“During that time I was able to secure retail stockists as well as cafés, who use the product in-house, and serve it to their customers.”
The past year has been spent consolidating the first 12 months’ of hard graft and spreading the message further afield.
“This year I’ve probably done a lot more interstate travel, trying to get the brand out there. Most of my markets that I attend now are the bigger design markets, such as Finders Keepers in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, where there is a focus on local makers. The demographic there is generally females looking to find something cool and new and exciting and I seem to do very well in these.”
