Tea-loving Nepal is warming up to coffee

Coffee hasn't always been an easy sell in Nepal. The Himalayan country is a major tea producer, as well as a major consumer. When people greet each other in the morning, they don't ask, "How are you?" They say, "Have you had your tea?" Tea—usually served as a sweet, milky beverage in a piping hot glass tumbler—is as much a part of Nepal's culture as rice, a constant presence at homes, meetings and social gatherings. But a growing number of Nepalis are warming up to coffee, as trendy cafés spring up on street corners in cities and towns across the country. Nepalis started trying coffee in the 90s. One café in the capital, Kathmandu, is widely seen as the pioneer. Gagan Pradhan began Himalayan Java as a single café in an alley, and it's grown to a chain with 84 locations in the country. Pradhan estimates there are around 7,000 cafés across the country, although so far international brands like Starbucks aren't in Nepal. "There are lot of tea shops throughout the nation, but the kind of setup they have is still kind of old-fashioned," Pradhan said. "I think with investors and people like us, when it comes to coffee shop, we are more serious not only with machines, we are serious with everything like the lighting, the setup, the furnishings, the location." Pradhan said tea shops usually offer just black tea or tea with milk, whereas a typical coffee menu has 10-15 hot beverages and about 10-15 cold beverages. Pradhan said it's an appealing business because the initial investment to open a café is very low, they're clean and simple enough for a single person or a family to run, and customers are willing to pay more for coffee. Several tea plantations in the mountains of eastern Nepal, famous for the tea, are now joined by coffee plantations. Nepal is part of a regional trend. Coffee consumption has soared across traditionally tea-drinking countries in Asia as members of growing middle classes seek out novel flavors and adopt international trends. This article was provided by The Associated Press.