PERSONAL: 'I don't know where I am going to live,' NY tea entrepreneur braces for tariffs

Record ID: 1988302

  • Title: PERSONAL: 'I don't know where I am going to live,' NY tea entrepreneur braces for tariffs
  • Date: 4th April 2025
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 4, 2025) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) OWNER OF ANJALI'S CUP, ANJALI BHARGAVA, SAYING: "I have to make very smart decisions. And to do that in this economic fog where we don't know what the story is going to be a month from now… I don't want to make the decision that I'm going to go for it and try to figure out a way to absorb the
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Anjali Bhargava Harlem Indian-American chai tariff tea
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Budget/Taxation/Revenue,North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA003432504042025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As tariffs set in across the United States businesses large and small are left wondering what the future looks like.
    For small business owners like New York-based drinks entrepreneur, Anjali Bhargava, the uncertainty leaves her questioning her capacity to stay housed in the short term.
    After a first career as a photographer, Bhargava moved into the beverage industry after her own homemade cocktails helped her get rid of chronic migraines.
    Born in Canada to an Indian family, Bhargava has drawn on her family's heritage for her drinks
    "My tagline is the 'gift of good roots,' which is… kind of a pun, right?" she said during an interview at her New York home. "Because people call ginger and turmeric, which are in all my blends, roots… it's not just those roots, it's the gift of my ancestors."
    Signature drinks include masala chai, resilience turmeric elixir and chai espresso affogato.
    As she was experimenting with her drinks, Bhargava had a chance encounter with an owner of Joe's Coffee Company, who was a quick fan of the Indian-inspired line of drinks.
    And so her drinks have been on the Joe's menu since 2019.
    "My ingredients, my packaging, so many elements that are critical to my business come from abroad. You simply can't grow Assam tea in the United States," she said. "My packaging, which I have taken four years to refine and get perfect so that it really stands out on the retail shelf, comes from China. And, looking at a 79% tariff potentially, which is what my supplier told me yesterday, I just don't have the margin to absorb that."
    Bhargava is not insensitive to the desire to boost U.S. workers. But she points out that tariffs are shortsighted.
    "If all of these small businesses can no longer source these ingredients and make their products… it's actually gonna remove American jobs," she said. "There are so many people from my co-packers to my fulfillment centers to the freight companies that I use that are all American companies. What's gonna happen to all those people that my business and all of these small businesses support? I don't fundamentally understand how something can help America if it hurts small business?"
    Her concerns come as she stares down her own new economic reality.
    "I have to make this work…I gotta make sure that I have a way to take care of my personal needs as well," she said. "I'm facing the fact that I'm 48 years old, I've taken on a lot of debt personally and if I am forced because of this to give up products and maybe eventually the business I don't have a way to pay those debts. I don't know where I'm gonna live."
    (Production by: Andrew Hofstetter, Dan Fastenberg)
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