Indian Masala Tea AKA Kullad Chai.!!

Here's the latest quick render of mine aiming to achieve realistic shading of materials.
It involves harnessing the power of almost all aspects of shading, which is what I was aiming for. 
I wanted to create something that all Indians love. CHAI.!!

Yes, some even believe Indians have chai running through their veins. lol

I used maya arnold and Nuke for compositing.

I am responsible for everything other than modeling.. 

almost everything procedural except few obvious objects.

I did use some references to achieve what I was going for.
Here they are,

I had some great references but, studio-ish look kind of kills the mood according to me... 
So I went for a bit of contrasty and warmer tones... 

Here are the breakdowns.