Our story

A cup that began under a mahua tree.

Banwa started on a hot April afternoon in Pachmarhi, when our founder Meera was handed a small clay cup of fermented mahua tea by a Baiga elder. It tasted like honey, smoke and the forest floor — and nothing like tea she had ever known.

The mahua flower has been gathered by forest communities for centuries — eaten fresh, dried for the lean season, fermented into a mild country liquor, and brewed into a cooling summer drink. It is woven into the rhythm of the forest calendar.

Today, mahua trees are threatened by shrinking forests and underpaid harvesters. Banwa exists to change that — buying direct from village cooperatives, paying a premium that reflects the slow, careful work of picking and drying, and shipping a harvest that is honest about where it came from.