Behind the Counter at ChaiCo & hyCane — Two Weekends at ExCeL

Food is the side of me that doesn't fit on a CV. By day I work in tech, and I genuinely love it. But every time someone asks if I want to help out on a food project, I hear myself saying yes before I've even checked my calendar. Food is where I get to be around people, flavours and stories, and that pull never really goes away.

The brands

ChaiCo is a UK karak chai brand by Asal-Karak Limited, founded by Mohammad Hamza Sheikh. If you haven't had karak, it's the strong, spiced, milky tea loved across South Asia and the Gulf, the kind of cup that feels like home for so many people. ChaiCo brings the real thing to the UK in a modern, trade-ready format.

hyCane is its sister brand, a fresh take on sugarcane-based drinks. Both are rooted in heritage flavours and built for UK and European food and drink retail. Proper flavours, made to sit on a shelf next to anything else.

The shows

First up was The Lunch! Show at ExCeL, the UK's award-winning trade show for the food-to-go world: cafes, delis, chains and contract caterers all hunting for the next thing to put on their counters. Then came The London Food & Drink Festival, also at ExCeL, a broader showcase of the whole food and drink industry.

What I actually did

Honestly? A bit of everything. I helped set the stand up, poured more chai than I can count, and sampled hyCane to buyers and press. Over and over I told the brand story to people stopping by between meetings. Early mornings, late nights, aching feet and that strange trade-show buzz where the hours disappear. Full chaos, and I loved it.

“You learn more from one person's face after their first sip than from a week of meetings.”

Why I keep saying yes

I think passion projects matter even when you have a career you love. Maybe especially then. A trade show teaches you things an office day never will. You see in real time what makes a brand click, how a story lands (or doesn't) in thirty seconds, and you get completely unfiltered feedback. Nobody pretends to like a drink to be polite when they've tasted forty others that morning.

It's the same thing I look for in the places I review: people putting real care into something, even when most people walking past won't notice. Standing behind that counter, I got to be one of those people for a few weekends.

Thank you

A huge thank you to Mohammad Hamza Sheikh and the whole Asal-Karak Limited team for having me back. It means a lot to be trusted with your brand and your story, and to be part of the team again. Here's to more karak, more sugarcane and more early mornings at ExCeL.