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Menlo Park resident Roshni Madhvani spent years working in academia and the sciences. Now, she’s blending her scientific skills with the art of making a great cup of tea for her new business The Chai Lab (“tested for maximum yum,” as the logo declares). She’s also mixing in her love of reading and bookshops by slinging her chai at pop-ups at local indie bookstores and author events.
“I just love being in that environment, and I thought it would be a good environment to serve chai,” she said.
Chai has been an important part of her life since childhood.
“I’m passionate about chai because I grew up drinking it. I’ve been making it since I was 9 years old,” Madhvani said. As the eldest of three children, it was her responsibility to make the chai for her parents, who originally hail from Mumbai, India, each morning.
“I’ve always enjoyed the ritual of it; making it and serving it,” she said. “Each home that makes chai makes it slightly differently.” Some people prefer certain spices over others, or flavors such as mint or lemongrass, she noted.
The chance to play around with flavors and styles is what gives her business its name, as she likes to experiment. For The Chai Lab’s beverages, Madhvani concocts her own blends of tea, a few spices and herbs (she’s keeping her recipes secret for now) and flavor options such as classic masala, lavender, ginger mint, rose cardamom, hazelnut (inspired by her enjoyment of hazelnut flavors in coffee beverages) and more. At a spring evening pop-up, she served iced Kashmiri chai, which is made with green tea and takes on a unique pink hue, topped with crushed nuts. And she recently announced on Instagram her newest successful experiment: an iced lemon “chai-nspänner” (her take on the Viennese coffee drink the einspänner; the Chai Lab’s version features strong and lightly sweetened chai, lemon zest, vanilla and topped with cold cream).
Madhvani usually goes easy on the milk and sugar, with the aim of creating a more “tea-forward” beverage with just enough sweetness and creaminess, she said. She tends to stay away from syrups, flavoring the rose cardamom chai using rosewater, for example, and infusing actual flowers from her own garden for the lavender chai.
“I like to be minimalist about it,” she said, preferring to use just a few spices so that the flavors shine through strongly. “I think if you have too much it gets a little complex.”
She strives to use ethically sourced ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Currently, her chai drinks are made with dairy milk, although she said she’s experimenting with an oat milk option as well, which she’ll offer when gets the ratio of milk to tea “dialed in.”
Madhvani had been dreaming of starting a craft chai business for years and, after getting burned out and leaving her previous job in biotech, she launched the Chai Lab in January of 2025 – getting the necessary permits, securing space at a commercial kitchen in Menlo Park and embarking on catering gigs, including friends’ birthday parties.
She’s become particularly fond of holding pop-ups at local bookshops Fireside Books and More in Redwood City and Kepler’s in Menlo Park. She said she feels “at home” in that setting and is an aspiring writer herself.
“I love talking to the people; I love talking to the authors,” she said. “Every time I’ve been going I just pick up a few books,” she laughed. “I’m basically spending all my profits on books.”
Madhvani has plans to eventually expand her reach. She’s reaching out to bookshops in San Francisco, as well as to various local farmers markets, and said she’s likely to invest in a truck in a few months. But as a mother, she’s mindful of needing to balance her business dreams with her family’s needs (The Chai Lab is currently a one-person operation).
She can arrange tastings for those interested in booking The Chai Lab for catering, and fans can follow her on Instagram to find out where she’ll be popping up next. In the meantime, keep an eye out at your local bookstore. On July 14, for example, she’ll be at a poetry night at Fireside, while July 30 she’ll be back at Kepler’s.
“Having a warm caffeinated beverage and discussing a good book or novel is just the perfect combination in my opinion,” she said.
The Chai Lab; Instagram: @thechailab.
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