About us
A feeling of love and ease
We make contemporary things with their roots in Indian culture, looking outward to you and to the world. Much like our masala chai.
I did not want to create a café. I wanted a place that offered the casual comfort of a Parisian sidewalk café and the soul of a local chai shop — filled with enough disarming ease that I could drop the weight of my daily life.
Jiten Suchede · Founder
2013
How Jugmug was born
The seed was planted in London. Changing metro lines at Piccadilly Circus, pining for a cup of proper chai, staring at an empty shop and thinking: that would make a great chai shop.
Years later a late-night street-side chai re-lit the idea, and in 2013 a friend issued a challenge — either do it or stop talking about your chai dukaan. In a matter of days I carpentered a pushcart together from discarded wood in the front yard, loaded it with teas and coffees collected from around the world, and wheeled it into a crafts mela.
Naming the brand
My favourite chai shop sat under an ageing acacia on a dimly lit street at the edge of an urban forest. On monsoon nights you were met with a kettle set atop a little bonfire in the ground, and a tree lit up with hundreds of fireflies.
Chai shops don’t really have name boards, and neither did we. But when the first story on us was about to run, the journalist asked what the thela was called. I was stumped.
It was that feeling — charcoal embers sparking out of the bonfire, the undulating glow of fireflies, the twinkling of stars — that gave us the word. Jugmug: glimmering.
Next morning I told the journalist: my thela is called Jugmug Thela.
The vibe
Between chai and cappuccino
It is baffling that for a country which runs on chai, there wasn’t a contemporary voice in the industry walking the line between culture and modernity, between chai and cappuccino, between time to yourself and time with everyone.
Every Jugmug experience is rooted at that junction — an ongoing homage to places of coming together over a drink or a meal.
Humse hai Jugmug
People and culture
We are because of our people, and our people are us. Jugmug works because of those who spend their mornings and evenings making the thing we are proud of.
At our core is respect and equality. As an equal opportunity employer we preferentially hire from challenging backgrounds and up-skill on the job. We do not bias over gender, religion, caste, colour or sexual orientation.
Responsibility
Where it comes from, what it leaves behind
We source spices and herbs from the parts of the world they belong to. Indian ingredients come directly from farmer groups and small businesses, cutting out middlemen and guaranteeing a fair price.
The café is built largely from waste and discarded material — wood, brick, glass, metal. Our packaging and disposables are biodegradable, and where something isn’t yet, we are working on it.
Partner with us
Carry the Jugmug light forward
After years of curating this in Delhi, we want to work with people elsewhere who share the same penchant for crafting experiences over good food and drink.