While waiting to land a job, Kavievanan Subramaniam turned to selling Masala tea to get some income.

What’s different about the 23-year-old’s business is the fact that he drives around on a bicycle to sell them. He told Malay Mail that when faced with the harsh reality of looking for a job in a pandemic, he wanted to focus on pursuing his dream of starting his own business.

The idea of selling Masala tea came easy to Kavievanan as he is a tea enthusiast and love drinking it.

Kavievanan, who has a degree in mechanical engineering from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) admitted that what was tricky was convincing his parents to support his business.

“They didn’t seem happy at first, but in the end, they told me that they are very proud of me for trying to do something like this. My mother even gave me some recipes to use for making the tea,” he said.

Hot, hot tea

He said selling Masala tea on wheels proved to be popular with people as there are not many such businesses in Malaysia

“It’s something classic I guess. You don’t really see many people doing it here in Malaysia, so I thought I’d try it out," he said.

Kavievanan usually cycles an average of five kilometres a day around Brickfields between 3pm and 5pm, selling his Masala tea for a mere RM1 per cup.

If customers want something to go with the tea, he also offers cakes and buns.

“Slowly business picked up. From selling 30 cups a day, I was able to sell about 100 cups a day. I got a lot of pick up orders from some regular customers as well.

“People were really interested in my idea to sell tea from my bicycle, so I carried on doing it,” he shared. Due to increasing interest, Kavievana has now roped in a few of his school friends to sell tea too.