About

And with me, it always starts with a cup of tea. However, not your average cuppa. It must exude a resplendent visual appeal, an alluring scent, and an incomparable taste.

Hello! I'm Chaïna, and I have a genuine fascination for fragrances, flavours, and tea. Growing up in Madagascar, a captivating island known for its abundant spices and essential oils, I was immersed in a North Indian Gujarati family of creative souls and entrepreneurial spirits, deeply rooted in the culinary arts for generations. In our household, we were exposed to a variety of tastes and enjoyed 3 types of cuisines: North Indian Gujarati, French, and Malagasy. So, it's this fusion of flavours and cultural influences that has shaped my palate. My mother, my grand-mother and her own grand-mother also fond of perfumes and gastronomy, passed me down their passion that I am proud to honour, first with my perfume brand and now with my tea house.

I left Madagascar to study in the nearby Reunion Island, formerly known as Bourbon Island. This French territory between Mauritius and Madagascar, is known for its rich biodiversity, essential oils and exquisite spices coined as "Bourbon". Its gastronomy is as remarkable due to its micro-climates (a hundred for a tiny island). incredible flora biodiversity and influences from a diverse population brought from 3 continents to populate this sugar-plantation island. I can truly say that during my 8-year tenure there, I underwent a significant transformation that influenced furthermore my gustatory and olfactory perceptions, as well as knowledge of botanicals and essential oils.

When I decided to pursue my studies in Paris, it opened another world of possibilities, refining and deepening my understanding of aromas and scents. Eventually, I chose to immigrate to Montreal, to finally settled down in Toronto. Here, I had the chance to explore other cultural influences with a North American twist and to experiment with aromatic boreal botanicals, while contemplating the idea of creating my own perfume and tea house one day.

Yet throughout my journey across half of the globe, there was one thing that I yearned the most - tea. Not just any tea, but the delightful blend reminiscent of my home country Madagascar chai tea.

In Toronto, I began sourcing ingredients and crafting my own chai tea, which ultimately inspired the foundation of this tea house.

At first, I attempted to recreate a chai tea using Malagasy black tea from the sole tea estate in the country, incorporating elements of the Madagascar Indian diaspora's traditional take on the beverage. The blend contains a substantial quantity of vanilla beans and only that! This constitutes our chai tea. Why would it incorporate anything else? Vanilla bean is such a remarkably intricate, versatile and complete spice. Nevertheless, some Indian families do include cardamom and nutmeg, like occasionally in ours whenever we desired a touch of additional flavour. This exclusive trio of spices is conventionally utilized by local Indians for crafting chai tea, without any ginger, clove or other spices that you can find in the chai tea from or inspired by India.

Although I could successfully recreate the taste, rituals and memories of my childhood tea, it realized that it did not fully capture my own personal growth and my newfound homeland in it and impart my personal flair. So, next, I pondered the ideal ingredients to portray my personal narrative as a tea and perfume enthusiast. To craft the blend, I employed a method reminiscent of creating fragrances, using a structure of top, heart, and base notes, and aging it with the perfumery technique known as "enfleurage" (a process involving layering for flower-scent extraction). By infusing the tea with multiple layers of spices, flowers, and botanicals, I achieved a decadent flavour profile. This experiment turned out so well that I realized I got something with my first bespoke tea, a sort of personal tea portrait if you wish.

Upon experiencing the delightfully aromatic and captivating taste of my brew, soon friends and colleagues alike couldn't resist asking about it and requesting more, even expressing a desire for me to sell it to them. This is how my inaugural tea blend was created, baring not so humbly my first name's Persian spelling, "Shahin", and how the idea of building my tea house came into existence.

During the early pandemic, I finally launched my niche perfume house. However, I made the strategic decision to transform my scented tea assortment into an independent brand. This new venture aimed to provide delightfully aromatic beverages to enthusiasts in search of comfort during this difficult time, instead of perfumes perceived as a frivolous seductive luxury. Hence, I embarked on this novel venture with the desire to blend the realm of tea with the artistry of perfumery. This venture, which I initially named "Olfatea", is now rebranded as "Olfachaï" after a period of hiatus to further refine the concept and stick to my story. The brand name had to include the word "chai" which also serves as a reminder of my name with the umlaut "ï" to connect it to my identity and trajectory and my love for chai tea.

So, when it comes to my tea house, I aspire to propagate an appreciation for tea that goes beyond the norm, through a meaningful desire to make, one cup at a time, a positive impact on individuals and the world as a whole. My mission is to spark joy, enhance tea lovers' experience, and create lasting memories while indulging in moments of pure satisfaction and serenity.

The initial idea was to create an eco-friendly scented tea house that embodies my own personal journey. However, it has now transformed into something much more profound.

I have created 7 initial collections that will expand gradually. Each set reflects a different aspect of my unique experiences in various countries, continents, and cultures. They also showcase my love for botanicals, arts, literature, and a certain art de vivre.

The idea centers on four primary influences:

1. Craftsmanship and artistry. ⏤ Above all, my tea house strives to capture authentic artisanship while embracing cutting-edge artistry. In the realm of tea, the majority of artisan blends are produced in large quantities by suppliers but are cleverly marketed as exclusive "in-house artisan" blends, which can be misleading. First and foremost, I am a crafter, so I do what crafters do, I create. Art is truly captivating to me. Consequently, I apply my skills in artisan perfumery to painstakingly gather each ingredient individually and blend them together to form "accords"(akin to musical or fragrance compositions) with a mindful backstory and an intended olfactory and gustative outcome and effect on the body-mind.

2. Salon de thé experience. ⏤ In addition, I am looking to enhance the experience by providing an unparalleled offering. I always wanted to incorporate the elegance of luxury tea inspired by the opulent tea salons of Paris in the late 1800s, during the Napoleonic Second Empire. It was a time when the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements flourished. This era witnessed a remarkable technological and urban shift. As a result, the French art de vivre became widely embraced, and bourgeois women gained newfound freedom in tea parlours.

3. The Oriental tea culture. ⏤ Leaving behind the indulgences of the Parisian realm, I am now guiding you towards the captivating and mysterious Far East. My North Indian heritage and its rich intersection with the Persian culture, has deeply shaped my fascination with the millennial Oriental tea culture. This passion stems from my background in a flourishing Gujarati merchant community that traveled across Asia and Arabia via the Spice road. Consequently, my creations also reflect this heritage and a profound appreciation for the intricate art of tea along this Ancient Road from Russia to Turkey.

4. The Malagasy heritage. ⏤ To wrap it up, I would like to express my heartfelt reverence for my homeland, Madagascar, where everything started. From an early age, I was acquainted with tea as my mother lovingly poured chai tea into my baby bottle, unaware of the existence of "caffeine" and its impact, something unimaginable today! Therefore, it is undeniable that chai tea flows in my veins and the word "chai" had to become an integral part of the brand name, which also serves as a reminder of my own first name. This is how "Olfachaï" blossomed through its quadruple connections. So, it was only natural to shift away from the Art Nouveau aesthetic of the original Olfatea and align the branding of the now Olfachaï with the diamond-shaped canister and its Malagasy traditional geometric patterns as reminiscences of Moramora Haute Parfumerie's branding, my perfumery house inspired by Madagascar.

I crafted this multisensory tea concept specifically for you and your senses, as I am convinced that tea and perfume express many similarities. They possess the capacity to impact our state of mind, activate something deep within us, bring joy, provide solace, and elicit the same meta emotional reaction as art. And yes, tea also can be art. And meditation. So, take a moment to smell and taste the roses, my roses, and be transported to multisensory universe like no other.