Bhakti Chai
Brook Eddy, founder of Bhakti traveled to India in 2002. She was fascinated with a social justice movement based on Bhakti (or devotion through social action) and wanted to learn more about it firsthand. On the journey she fell in love with two things that would ultimately become the foundation for her life’s work.
The first love was this idea that no matter what your station in life, you have a responsibility to contribute to the community and doing so will have a pervasive and lasting impact. In the communities where she learned about Bhakti, families would invite her into their homes and share their experiences about how this social movement had impacted them and their communities over a cup homemade spicy chai. She couldn’t help but fall in love with its incredible flavor and aroma.
When she returned home, she began brewing her own chai. Standing over the pot of steaming chai on her stove and inhaling the layers of fragrant spices, Brook was suddenly swept back into the chaos, colors and vibrancy of India and all that she had experienced there.
When her homemade brew gained attention (and even addiction) from friends and neighbors, she decided to take the principles of Bhakti that she had learned in India and build a company on this ideal. This single mother of twins took a deep breath, quit her full time job, and dove into the process of bringing consumers a craft-brewed chai that was steeped in social and environmental change.
Bhakti Chai has become a leader in business, embracing a profit model that prioritizes giving back to the global community and inspiring others to live their Bhakti by doing the same. Their new social giving website, http://www.gitagiving.org, highlights some of the amazing projects we support in the global community.