There is no fixed criteria for according national status to any particular product. However, the government has received and examined a proposal to declare tea as the national drink in 2006 in consultation with the central ministries and departments and the governments of the concerned states and Union Territories.
The matter was not pursued further as some state governments raised objections. They felt that coffee is a competing beverage and both have sizeable market shares, and that declaring one particular beverage as the national drink would likely be at the cost of the other.
