The big winners from India's coffee craze may not sell coffee at all

In recent months, Third Wave Coffee raised $43 million to accelerate geographical expansion while Amrut Distilleries launched India's first-ever coffee-cask finished single malt whisky. Together, the developments point to a broader trend: India’s coffee boom is creating opportunities far beyond cafes, roasters and coffee chains.

From beauty and homeware to whisky, luxury hotels and experiential retail, companies are finding ways to tap into the cultural and commercial appeal of coffee without necessarily selling a conventional cup.

The opportunity lies in what coffee has come to represent. As café culture expands across cities and younger consumers embrace coffee as part of their lifestyle, businesses are monetising the aroma, ritual, aesthetics and premium associations surrounding it.


A whisky maker is using coffee-treated casks to create a limited-edition single malt. Beauty brands are using coffee in skincare and fragrances. Home and lifestyle companies are selling products that help consumers recreate café-like experiences at home. Hotels are taking coffee beyond breakfast, into cocktails, desserts and premium experiences.

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Why coffee?

For personal-care brand mCaffeine, coffee's appeal goes beyond its familiarity as an everyday beverage.

“It is a combination of all four, but the starting point is efficacy,” Tarun Sharma, cofounder and chief executive of mCaffeine told ET Online, referring to caffeine's functional benefits, coffee as an ingredient, its aroma and sensorial appeal, and its broader lifestyle association.

“Coffee today represents energy, productivity, self-expression, and contemporary urban living,” Sharma said.

For mCaffeine, that makes coffee a bridge between performance, sensorial experience and lifestyle. The company has expanded into tea, chocolate and other ingredients, but coffee remains an important part of its brand identity and business.

The same shift is playing out in fragrances and body care.

Trent-owned Westside's beauty business Studiowest has launched coffee-inspired products based on the idea that modern consumers increasingly view personal care as an emotional pick-me-up. Coffee brings “warmth, comforting nostalgia, and energising ritual”, according to Umashan Naidoo, chief creative officer and beauty at Tata Group-owned Trent.

Gourmand and café-inspired fragrances are seeing strong trial and repeat adoption, particularly among Gen Z consumers, she told ET Online, referring to coffee, vanilla, warm cocoa and spices, which are also moving beyond seasonal novelty products to become more permanent features of India's beauty market.

As cafe culture expands across metros and smaller cities, coffee and food-inspired sensory beauty could become a larger driver of the personal-care and fragrance market, Naidoo added.

For beauty retailer Tira, coffee is not necessarily about the ingredient inside a product. Instead, it is becoming part of the retail experience.

The Tira flagship at Jio World Plaza houses the Tira Café, allowing consumers to combine a coffee experience with beauty discovery. The retailer has also brought coffee and beauty together through pop-ups and collaborations.

Coffee is moving beyond being an ingredient or beverage to becoming a lifestyle and premiumisation cue, particularly for younger, experience-led consumers. The opportunity is about creating experiences and communities around beauty rather than simply selling products.

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Selling the coffee ritual

The coffee boom is also spilling into consumers' homes.

As Indians become more exposed to specialty coffee and different brewing styles, the products surrounding the drink are becoming increasingly popular. Consumers are paying attention not only to what they drink, but also to how they prepare and serve it.

At the home decor and lifestyle brand Nestasia, mugs, ceramic cups, glassware and serving accessories are becoming an extension of consumers' personalities and home aesthetics.

“Coffee tableware is no longer just about utility. It is increasingly about making an everyday ritual feel more personal and special,” Aditi Murarka Agrawal, cofounder of Nestasia, told ET Online.

The growth of cafe and specialty coffee culture has created demand for more specialised drinkware at home. Some consumers are moving beyond owning one everyday mug and choosing different products depending on whether they are drinking an espresso, cappuccino or iced coffee.

For younger consumers in particular, the coffee corner or breakfast table is becoming an extension of their personal style, Agrawal said.

Nestasia stated that the brand is seeing strong interest in mugs, ceramic coffee cups, glassware and sets, as well as growing demand for espresso and cappuccino cups as consumers become more familiar with different coffee styles.

For Nestasia, coffee may only be the entry point. The company is also exploring products around matcha and other emerging beverage rituals.

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From the cup to the cocktail

Coffee's growing cultural relevance is also encouraging experimentation in categories where it was once largely absent.

Amrut Distilleries recently launched CaféX, a limited-edition single malt finished in casks treated with dried coffee beans and coffee fruit.

The idea was not driven by a specific demand for a coffee-finished whisky, Rakshit N Jagdale, Managing Director at Amrut Distilleries said, but the growing popularity of artisanal and specialty coffee presented an opportunity to explore the intersection of coffee and whisky.

The company has seen interest from both premium whisky consumers willing to experiment with different cask finishes and coffee enthusiasts curious about how the cask treatment affects the whisky's flavour profile.

At Taj Palace, New Delhi, the luxury hotel is increasingly using coffee across the property rather than confining it to the traditional service.

The hotel has incorporated coffee into cocktails and desserts, while its newly renovated rooms now feature coffee machines. It is also preparing to introduce a premium Gold Coffee experience at its Tea Lounge.

“Coffee has become a much more familiar and understood ingredient today,” Rajeev Sharma, food and beverage manager at Taj Palace told ET Online. “Guests know their coffees better, they have preferences around roasts and styles, and they are also far more open to experiencing coffee beyond the morning cup.”

At its Loya restaurant, coffee features in a cocktail on the VRIKSH menu, while tiramisu remains a popular offering at its Capital Kitchen. The hotel sees coffee becoming an all-day ingredient, moving from breakfast to meetings and conversations before returning in cocktails or desserts at the dinner table.

Coffee boom, without the bean-price risk

The coffee craze, however, comes with a complication for companies directly using the commodity: rising and volatile bean prices.

For mCaffeine, rising coffee prices have made sourcing and supply-chain efficiency important. The personal care brand highlighted that Indian coffee prices have risen significantly, with the Coffee Board of India reporting an average domestic auction price of Arabica Plantation ‘A’ rising by around 39% in 2024-25 compared with the previous year.

However, CEO and co-founder Sharma said every movement in raw material prices does not necessarily have to translate into a change in the consumer proposition, with companies seeking to balance product quality, consumer value and sustainable business economics.

Studiowest, too, noted that global agricultural commodity shifts can affect raw materials. But Naidoo said Westside's supply chain and local formulation networks allow the company to manage input fluctuations without passing them on to consumers.

For others, the exposure is considerably lower.

Nestasia and Amrut, for instance, have no direct exposure to coffee-bean prices.

While cafe chains and roasters must contend with the economics of beans, milk, rents and store expansion, adjacent businesses can capture demand generated by coffee culture through products and experiences that sit around the beverage.

As Third Wave plans to use the fresh capital to expand in existing markets, enter new cities and build out newer categories, it aims to raise its cafe count to 320 from the current 240 by the end of this financial year.

"Our focus remains on scaling the business sustainably, with strong unit economics, healthy store payback economics and operational discipline," chief executive Rajat Luthra said, further stating that the company's longer-term plan is to add around 100 cafes every year, he added.

The biggest winners from India's coffee craze, then, may not necessarily be the brands pouring the coffee. They could also be the ones selling consumers everything that comes with it — the fragrance, the mug, the ritual, the aesthetic and the experience.