Over ten years ago, lifelongs friends Vincent Conti and Mario Minichilli opened a café in St Kilda, Melbourne after years of traveling the world together.
They fell in love with masala chai on their travels throughout Asia but couldn’t find anything at home that measured up, so they set about developing a chai blend inspired by the flavors they loved from India. As they perfected their own recipe, their customers grew to love their chai and other cafes wanted in, fate brought Koray Gencel into their lives and Prana Chai was born!
Over 10 years later, they finally outgrew their small cafe kitchen and instead have their very own factory in Melbourne, Australia, where they still hand make their chai and sell to nearly 4000 market leading coffee shops worldwide.
2009 Mario and Vincent started to brew their own sticky chai, inspired by their travels around India, to serve in their St Kilda Cafe.
2010 Koray came into the picture as a frequent customer turned friend and together the three friends created the brand Prana Chai.
2012 Prana Chai starts to grow a loyal following and an online retail store is launched.
2013 Chai production outgrows the cafe kitchen and we move into our first rented factory while starting to distribute overseas to Germany.
2014 Prana Chai North America is born and we are awarded the best consumer product at the 2015 Chicago Coffee Expo
2015 Prana Chai Japan is born
2019 The business is growing exponentially and receives the Melbourne Business Innovation Award
2023 Prana Chai moves into our very own factory!
Yuya is based in Japan, and has been with Prana Chai almost 3 years now. 🎌
His favorite blend is DECAF, because he loves the design the most.
His favorite Emoji is 🤙 which accurately sums up his personality.
He used to drive a drift car, so he's basically a real life Tokyo drift king.
He is an avid skateboard and snowboarder and can ride any board sideways! 🛹 🏂
Vincent is one of the three founding fathers and our chief chai chef. 👨🍳
His favourite blend is Turmeric, because apparently it keeps him grounded. 🧘♂️
His nickname is Vinny Boy, because according to him he is young at heart. 💛
His favourite joke is too inappropriate to say, so he has conceded with "how do you get an irishman on a roof? Tell him drinks are on the house"
Vesna is the first step in our production line, she makes sure all chai bags are stamped, sized and ready to be filled!
Her favourite blend is Original 🙌
When asked what her favourite food is, she said "Everything! But Italian food especially".
Her favourite thing to do is take walks in nature, usually with her dog Bentley. 🐶
Her favourite emoji is 🫠
Sunhil is our Production Manager based in Melbourne and makes sure to keep all of the boys in line and chai flowing smoothly!
His favourite blend is Peppermint, because it is nice and refreshing. 🌱
His nickname is Sunzy, not sure why but that's what everyone calls him.
His favourite hobby is watching movies, and his all time favourite film is RRR! 🎬
Meet Rad, our Melbourne Factory Commander. His favourite blend is Decaf because he needs the calm to balance out the chaos.
His nickname is Gorilla Tape because he holds everything together. 🤝
We asked him what emoji best describes him but he didn't know what emojis were. 🤷♀️
If he could have one super power ... "I would want to fly so I could just go for swim in the Maldives at lunch time and come back" 🏝
Steffie's favourite blend is the Vegan, because the agave gives it the perfect amount of sweetness.
In her next life she wants to be a cowgirl so of course her go to emoji is 🤠
A dish you could wake her up with in the middle of the night is Spaghetti Vongole. 🍝
If you ever see Steffie driving around Melbourne in the Prana Chai car, say Hi and she promises to spoil you with some samples.
Noelia is a passionate aficionado of both chai and coffee! ☕️
By day she immerses herself in her professional endeavours, but once the workday ends, she transitions into the world of ballet. Her favourite section of dance is "adagio". 👯♀️
She is very well known for her tranquility and solemnity although all the caffeine that is running in her veins.
Her heart lies in her Spanish heritage, with "Tortilla de patatas" being her favourite dish. 🫓 🥔
Natalie's favourite blend is Turmeric because it makes her feel like an absolute wellness diva. 🧘♀️
Her favourite emoji is 🤟 because it is her real life response to anything and it's slowly turning into her toxic trait.
"Last week, a salesperson called me to pitch broadband services, I politely declined, saying "I'm all set, thank you anyway". However, he persisted to ask me "who I was with", I hesitantly replied, "my partner?" before swiftly realising he was asking about the internet provider, not who was with me in the room. I ended the call abruptly" 🫢
Mario is one of our founding fathers and keeps the ship afloat!
Although he was based in out Melbourne HQ, he recently moved to Spain to head up the EU Chai scene in person.
You'll never find Mario on a Wednesday afternoon because that's when he is out sailing, his favourite thing to do ⛵️
His nickname is Mars or Generations, neither of which have any explanation apparently 🤷♀️
Kuldeep is part of our Melbourne Production team, who keeps the chai flowing and the people happy!
His favourite blend is Original, because you cant beat it.
His favourite thing to do, aside from making chai, is watching movies and doing gymnastics.
Kotoro is our lead chai master in Japan. He met the founding fathers when he worked as a barista in Melbourne back in the day and he took Prana Chai back to Japan where it has flourished! 🎌
When asked what his nickname is, he said Kotoro...
His favourite emoji is 🐯
And if he could eat one food for the rest of his life, it would be ramen. 🍜
Koray is one of the three founding fathers, based in Melbourne HQ. 👨👨👦
His favourite chai blend is Decaf although he doesn't have a reason why.
He gets called big boy because he is quite obviously big, 6'3 to be exact. 💂♀️
When asked about his favourite emoji, his response was "I don't use emoji's".
His favourite joke is any dad joke because he laughs and his daughter doesn't, but she still says "don't worry dad i still love you" 👴🏻
Ivan is a South American hospitality legend and a top-notch barista.
He can speak three languages, and his favorite blend is Turmeric, because he loves it's properties and benefits, especially after a good workout. 🏋️
My favorite emoji is ☕️.
And if he had to eat one thing for the rest of his life, it would be ceviche.
Josh is our Sales Manager, based in Sydney!
His favourite blend is Turmeric, because "it's the goods".
He loves all sports, especially Surfing and Golf 🏌️♀️🏄♀️
His favourite emoji is 🦈
And his nickname is The Dad Taxi
Dev is the youngest member of our team and works in the production room making the good stuff!
Alongside working at Prana, he studies Computer Development at university.
Dee is our dispatch superstar and recently took over the Accounts here in Australia.
She like the Vegan blend with oat milk and getting caught in the rain...
The emoji that best describes her is 💃
If she could be any animal in the world, she would be a whale because "they are big, calm and play an amazing role in our ecosystem that keeps every creature on earth alive!"
And yes, she did just watch a whale documentary.
Aylin is based in Turkey and is the Keeper Of Accounts for all of the EU!
She loves the natural sincere connection built with animals and is the co-founder of an NGO named ''The Golden Kids of the Dump", aiming for the wellbeing of street cats & dogs in her home country Turkey.
When she feels desperate she reads Rumi and Elio D'Anna, a modern day philosopher and a dear friend.
Drinks Çay (Chai) everyday...but always black.
Her favorites change occasionally however she still thinks simplicity is always the best.
Ana has been with Prana Chai from the very beginning! From being a helping hand with anything that was needed, think chopping ginger, stamping bags, sticking labels, to running all of Prana's accounts and customer service!
If she had a superpower it would be teletransportation, so she could travel anywhere, anytime.
Her favourite blend is Original, because it's a classic!
She has several nicknames: Nouki, Be, Belenciña...
Angus does everything and anything at Prana Chai, he is the face most of Melbourne see’s when they receive their chai deliveries! 🚙
His nickname is Gus, no explanations needed. 💁♀️
His favourite thing is his phones speech to text function and it’s a guessing game whether he is just shouting random words at you or trying to text someone.
Taylor is the marketing queen of Prana Chai, taking care of pretty much anything creative!
Her favourite blend is Peppermint because she likes the colour the best 💙
Her favourite emoji is 💃
Don't ever ask her about her dog as she will show you every photo she has ever taken 🐶
And her favourite food is anything carbs 🍕 🍝 🥨
Hannah is the Perth Chai queen, working at Prana for just a year! She is the baby of the Prana group.
Her favourite blend is Tumeric, enjoying the spicy flavours it gives 🧡
Hannah loves cooking and all things food related. Bowl of pasta and a glass of wine on a Friday night 🍷
Her favourite emoji is 🫠 because it suits every scenario in life.
Behind the scenes of the best chai company ever
product.description