Eat meals based on your Ayurvedic body constitution at this Gurugram-based café

Amid the growing crop of cafés in Gurugram, a new concept has caught consumer attention for its wellness-meets-comfort philosophy. Café Swasthya by Butterfly Ayurveda, a brand led by entrepreneur Akshi Khandelwal, offers an Ayurveda-inspired menu with wholesome meals, herbal teas, wellness coffee, and bakery products. 

At Café Swasthya, every dish is tailored to an individual’s Ayurvedic constitutional type—vata, pitta, and kapha—to ensure it suits their body. This is the tridosha philosophy, which defines the three fundamental energies or principles governing our body functions at an emotional and physical level. Vata (space and air) is responsible for movement, pitta (fire and water) helps with metabolism, and kapha (earth and water) manages assimilation in the body.

For instance, Café Swasthya offers khichdi in three versions: medium spicy for vata, mildly spiced for pitta, and spicy for kapha. 

For a café, the absence of the popular hot beverage, cappuccino, on the menu may surprise many, but Khandelwal considers them ‘bad’ for the body. Instead, it has speciality filter coffee and other hot beverages like turmeric latte, turmeric latte with pepper, and jaggery latte, and even cinnamon spiced cocoa makes a feature. 

“We haven't set up a café to experiment. Our goal is to offer food that's good for you. Your stomach must feel good. When we look around, there are so many domestic and international chains that may offer things that may not work for the body,” Khandelwal tells YS Life. 

Education is a key pillar of not just the café but the larger brand, but Khandelwal and her team don’t want to make it overwhelming for the consumers. 

When visitors walk into the café, they can do a five-minute quiz—answer simple questions to identify their dosha, making them more aware of their bodies. “We don't want to make it boring for anyone, which will put people off. Everything has been thought out with intention; there is no jargon,” says Khandelwal. Based on the results, the café offers dosha-balancing meals. 

Behind the scenes 

It wasn't an overnight decision to create Café Swasthya. Instead, it took Khandelwal almost two years to work with her research and development team to bring the concept alive.

However, the seed for the café was sown in 2018 when she started the Butterfly Ayurveda bakery. “I kept questioning, ‘why can't cakes in cafés be healthy?’ I am a person who loves coffee and cake, but I have undergone some serious digestive issues. But the fact is that using certain ingredients can make a difference,” adds Khandelwal. 

It began by developing cookies made with cow ghee and natural ingredients like barley, fennel, cardamom, mint, jeera, and ajwain. Café Swasthya also has cakes—from hazelnut chocolate to beetroot, mint chocolate, and even pumpkin. 

The idea, points out Khandelwal, is not to medicate anyone. “We don't use herbs like ashwagandha or brahmi in the cookie, not until asked for by the client. Each of these products is healthy and also very tasty,” she says. 

The wisdom lies in the Indian kitchen, where one must not mix certain ingredients or create something for the sake of it. Everything in our culture hinges towards a scientific and intuitive approach. 

“Say, when we speak of dal, one can't say jeera won't go in this, or khatai needs to be removed. There's a reason khatai digests that dal, else it won't break down in your stomach. This has been the root of our R&D,” adds Khandelwal. 

A passion for health and wellness

Khandelwal’s drive for health and wellness manifested in Butterfly Ayurveda over a decade ago. While she started her career as a microfinance professional, her love for performing arts like Bharatnatyam led her to change course. 

Being involved in movement and somatic work piqued her interest in knowing more about her body. A trip to Himachal Pradesh to study Japanese performance art gave her time to read books on naturopathy and Ayurveda. That's how her journey began. 

“I decided to invest in a research and development unit that develops Ayurvedic products specifically catering to the contemporary lifestyle. I also got an Ayurvedic doctor and a few technical analysts on board. That's how we began developing formulations,” she recalls. 

When initial testing worked in her favour, Khandelwal established Butterfly Ayurveda, a lifestyle and health brand centred on Ayurvedic herbs and concoctions. 

It started with a range of herbal teas—from Suprabhat chai (kapha-balancing green tea) to Shubh Sanjh chai (vata-balancing green tea), and Ratri chai (tea for relaxation and unwinding), among others. 

Eventually, Butterfly Ayurveda expanded to include infusions for better digestive health, diabetes, and weight management. 

“Over a period of time, we developed more variants catering to the domestic market. We realised India cannot do without masala chai, and then we came up with variants of CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) as well,” she says. 

The brand also offers Ayurvedic medicines and alternative solutions for lifestyle ailments, like diabetes, liver issues, immunity, constipation, and muscular and joint pain. 

From its initial days, Khandelwal has believed in being transparent in the packaging and labelling, ensuring her consumers know about the tridosha concept. “We also tell people why a particular tea or product should be consumed. Otherwise, there's a risk of self-medication. You should not underestimate the power of herbs. It is very important that one understands that these are very powerful.” 

Among Butterfly Ayurveda’s portfolio, the Ayurvedic teas are available at Café Swasthya. It also has soups, salads, sandwiches, and wraps made with healthy flours and fresh produce. 

Guests can also try its takra buttermilk, an Ayurvedic drink with herbs and spices, customised for each dosha.

What's next?

While Butterfly Ayurveda has been bootstrapped since 2014, Khandelwal believes funding will eventually happen if they align with an investor with similar sensibilities.

“We are open to global partnerships as well. But at this stage, I think we are a little young. With respect to the model, we are flexible with what a person brings on board,” she concludes.