Archive · 7 Aug 2026
Telangana entrepreneur creates India's first sweet lime tea bags
A man named Sivaram lives in a part of India called Telangana.
He made something new: tea bags made from sweet limes, which are also called mosambi.
Most tea comes from tea leaves, but his tea comes from fruit.
He dried the juice, pulp, and peel of sweet limes to make a powder.
This powder is used to fill the tea bags.
Sivaram worked on this for two years and spent a lot of his own money.
The Indian government gave him an award for his clever idea.
He received the award in New Delhi from a minister named Jitendra Singh.
His tea bags are healthy because they have no artificial chemicals.
Sivaram wants to make more products, like sweet lime cubes, and sell his tea all over India.
Sivaram, an entrepreneur from Telangana, has developed India's first sweet lime (mosambi) tea bags made entirely from natural ingredients with no artificial chemicals.
He received the Grassroots Innovation Award 2026 from Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Sweet limes are sourced from farmers in the Nalgonda region and processed into powder using modern solar dehydrators with support from Farmer Producer Organisations.
The two-year project involved about ₹40 lakh of Sivaram's own investment and research collaboration with scientists at CFTRI, Mysuru, with initial manufacturing at a prototype plant in Anantapur.
Sivaram plans to expand with sweet lime cubes for hot and cold drinks and begin industrial-scale production, with tea bags priced at ₹10 and tea powder at ₹49 per 25 g pack.
- Who
- Sivaram, an entrepreneur from Telangana, collaborating with scientists at CFTRI, Mysuru, and Farmer Producer Organisations.
- What
- Created India's first sweet lime (mosambi) tea bags and is developing related products such as sweet lime cubes.
- When
- Awarded the Grassroots Innovation Award 2026; the product followed two years of research and development.
- Where
- Telangana, with sweet limes sourced from Nalgonda, manufacturing at a prototype plant in Anantapur, and the award presented at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
- Why
- To create products that are both healthy and commercially viable, without adding artificial chemicals.
- Product
- Sweet lime (mosambi) tea bags — India's first
- Award
- Grassroots Innovation Award 2026
- Award presented by
- Union Minister Jitendra Singh at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi
- Self investment
- ₹40 lakh
- Research and development
- 2 years
- Tea bag price
- ₹10
- Tea powder price
- ₹49 per 25 g pack (serves five)
- Squash price
- ₹899 per litre (makes up to four litres)