Tea-loving Nepal is warming up to coffee

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Coffee hasn't always been an easy sell in Nepal.

The Himalayan country is a major tea producer, as well as a major consumer. When people greet each other in the morning, they don't ask “how are you.” They say “have you had your tea?”

Tea — usually served with as a sweet, milky beverage in a piping hot glass tumbler — is as much a part of Nepal's culture as rice, a constant presence at homes, meetings and social gatherings.

But a growing number of Nepalis are warming up to coffee, as trendy cafes spring up street corners in cities and towns across the country.

One cafe in the capital, Kathmandu, is widely seen as the pioneer.

Gagan Pradhan began Himalayan Java as a single cafe in an alley, and it's grown to a chain with 84 locations the country. Pradhan estimates there around 7,000 cafes across the country, although so far international brands like Starbucks aren't in Nepal.

“There are lot of tea shops throughout the nation, but the kind of set up they have is still kind of old fashioned,” Pradhan said. “I think with investors and people like us, when it comes to coffee shop we are more serious not only with machines, we are serious with everything like the lighting, the set up, the furnishings, the location.”

Pradhan said tea shops usually offer just black tea or tea with milk, whereas a typical coffee menu has 10-15 hot beverages and about 10-15 cold beverages, he said.

Pradhan said it’s an appealing business because the initial investment to open a cafe is very low, they’re clean and simple enough for a single to family to run, and customers are willing to pay more for coffee.

Several of eastern Nepal’s tea plantations in the mountains of east Nepal, famous for the tea, are joined by coffee plantations now.

Nepal is part of a regional trend. Coffee consumption has soared across traditionally tea-drinking countries in Asia as members of growing middle classes seek out novel flavors and adopt international trends.

Coffee is a premium drink in Nepal: it costs about $2 at Himalayan Java, which is enough to buy a meal at a local cafe in Kathmandu, or five cups of tea. Still, cafes bustle with officers workers on breaks and students looking for places to study.

“I think the idea of drinking coffee (in Nepal) was first triggered with people thinking it would elevate their standard of living, but then once they tasted coffee many people just liked it and continued to drink it,” said Deep Singh Bandari, a social worker who is a regular visitor to the coffee cafes.

Most of the coffee drunk in Nepal is imported, but in the country's famous eastern tea-growing regions coffee plantations are springing up.

According to Nepal’s National Tea and Coffee Development Board, about 400 tons of coffee was produced in fiscal year 2021-22, the most recent for which data is available. That's a drop in the percolator compared to the 26,000 tons of tea produced the same year, but the board predicts rapid growth.

“Both young and old people in Nepal just love coffee, and the number of coffee drinkers is growing every day. This trend is just going to grow,” said Pradhan.

A couple talks sitting outside a tea shop at Basantapur Durbar square in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

An employee prepares a coffee for a customer at Himalayan Java cafe at Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A person checks his mobile phone while drinking coffee at a cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

An employees pours coffee for a customer at Himalayan Java cafe at Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

People drink coffee overlooking Boudhanath Stupa at Himalayan Java cafe in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

BANGKOK (AP) — Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok won’t be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal, according to a statement posted on X.

The announcement late Wednesday followed a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, including bans and warnings by some governments.

The pushback included an investigation announced Wednesday by the state of California into the proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok.

Initially, media queries about the problem drew only the response, “legacy media lies.”

Musk’s company, xAI, now says it will geoblock content if it violates laws in a particular place.

“We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis, underwear and other revealing attire,” it said.

The rule applies to all users, including paid subscribers, who have access to more features.

xAI also has limited image creation or editing to paid subscribers only “to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable.”

Grok’s “spicy mode” had allowed users to create explicit content, leading to a backlash from governments worldwide.

Malaysia and Indonesia took legal action and blocked access to Grok. The U.K. and European Union were investigating potential violations of online safety laws. France and India have also issued warnings, demanding stricter controls. Brazil called for an investigation into Grok’s misuse.

The Grok editing functions were “facilitating the large-scale production of deepfake nonconsensual intimate images that are being used to harass women and girls across the internet, including via the social media platform X,” California's announcement said.

“The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking. This material, which depicts women and children in nude and sexually explicit situations, has been used to harass people across the internet," it cited the state's Attorney General Rob Bonta as saying.

"We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material,” he said.

FILE - Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

FILE - Workers install lighting on an "X" sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)