Coffee on wheels: Hyderabad's Brew Tribe offers freshly-brewed coffee on the go

Hyderabad: It all started with the desire for a good cup of coffee. Brew Tribe founder Sampath Samudrala and co-founder Sanjuwar were colleagues who used to travel together from office to home. Every day they wished for good coffee and cribbed about the machine-made premix coffee served in the office and the clients' place. "Premix coffees were never good. And to get a good coffee meant paying a lot of money for it," Sampath said.

That's when Sampath started exploring the idea of how to make good coffee available everywhere. "I opted for 'coffee-on-the-go' made on eclectic carts. This would reduce large investments required to open a coffee shop," he said. "And freshly-brewed coffee on wheels will be a blessing for all coffee lovers who are missing freshly-brewed coffee on the go," he added.

It started with a single cart in Sainikpuri on a pilot basis last February but the response was lukewarm. "We realised that it is not the product alone. The market also needs to be considered. We moved to the Gachibowli area in July 2021. People in and around Khajaguda received it well and from then, our journey of Brew Tribe started," he said. The carts were formally launched in February in association with FICCI and T-hub.

Starting from as low as Rs. 30, Brew Tribe offers various kinds of coffees. They have iced and cold coffees for a very nominal price. They also have their own special brews – French Press, Aeropress, Chemex, and Pour Over.

The Brew Tribe is a specially trained team of Baristas who serve freshly-brewed coffee to customers by grounding beans fresh for every cup. They craft the coffee of their choice. "Selected beans from Indian coffee farms are roasted to perfection and used as per the identified recipe. Coffee with great aroma, strength, and of course, taste, is served which everyone appreciates," Sampath said and added, "The beans are the cardinal ingredient for any good coffee. Hence, we take the most care in bringing them from all the three southern states of India."

They started with one cart and now have eight – a few on the streets and a couple in tech parks like Diverse Orion. "The electric carts can also be spotted near Khajaguda lake, Durgam Cheruvu, Inorbit mall, and more. We plan to grow to 100 carts but we are not in a hurry to grow considering all geographic challenges before we enter any new market," Sampath added.

The Brew Tribe currently operates only in the evenings, between 5 p.m to 10 p.m, each cart serving around 100 cups.