At a café on SW Farmington Road in downtown Beaverton, every cup of chai gets its sweetness from jaggery, an unrefined sugar imported directly from India. Fly Chai, owned by Neil Bhatnagar, uses the sweetener, known as gud in Hindi, across its entire menu, turning a staple of South Asian cuisine into the backbone of a neighborhood chai house.
Bhatnagar left a career in health care before opening Fly Chai, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive, which reported that he got the idea for the business at a cousin's wedding in Florida, where he noticed people gathering to drink chai together at every meal. Fly Chai welcomed its first customers about three months after he conceived of opening a chai house, Bhatnagar said, according to the same report. His goal, he said, was for people to try real chai and for the café to bring people together.
A Recipe Passed Down, Not Invented
The café's bestselling everyday blend, called Heritage, draws on a recipe from Bhatnagar's mother, per the Oregonian/OregonLive report. Fly Chai describes it in similar terms on its own site, saying the drink served today is Fly Chai's telling of her exact home recipe. The house version is built on Assam black tea layered with cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and clove, per the business's website — the same spice blend that defines masala chai more broadly. Chai translates simply to tea in Hindi, while masala chai typically means black tea steeped with milk, spices and a sweetener.
Two other blends round out the lineup. Golden is described as turmeric-forward, a mix the menu on Toast characterizes as Assam black tea brewed with a golden turmeric blend, cinnamon and lemongrass. Firestarter takes the opposite route, built around red chili powder along with ginger and crushed red pepper, according to the same ordering page. Customers can try all three in a flight of three chai blends for $12, and Fly Chai lets customers customize sweetness and masala levels, adding extras like lemongrass and mint or choosing from milk options that include oat and pistachio.
The Jaggery at the Center of It All
Jaggery itself is the throughline across every cup. Fly Chai imports its Kolhapuri jaggery directly from India and says it melts the sugarcane-derived sweetener in-house for what the business describes as rich caramel depth. The café also sells jaggery to customers who want to cook with it at home, alongside packaged versions of its three basic masala mixes and starter kits that include a clay cup called a kulhad and a strainer.
Beyond the counter, Fly Chai's café presents itself as a gathering spot, offering freshly poured cups, tasting flights and warm Indian bites alongside music, games and community events, according to the business's own account of its story. Bhatnagar has said he wants Fly Chai to function as a third place where customers can hang out and share tea, a framing echoed in his description of the business on LinkedIn as a modern masala chai brand built in Beaverton.
Beyond the Beaverton Counter
Bhatnagar is also looking past the café's four walls. On LinkedIn, he said he is working to bring the Fly Chai experience to more homes and communities across the country through packaged chai blends and partnerships, and he said the Heritage and Firestarter blends were coming to Market of Choice in new bags. Fly Chai's website separately states that its Heritage, Golden and Firestarter blends ship nationwide.
For now, the café at 12520 SW Farmington Road remains the center of the operation. It is open Sunday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., with orders also accepted through the business's website.
