Heytea opens first overseas teabar in New York

Heytea, the originator of new-style tea with more than 40 locations across the United States, opened its first overseas teabar in New York on Friday, introducing a new store concept and product experience centered on tea to overseas consumers.

Built around a tea-centered store concept and the brand’s new product category, Teamix, the teabar, located at 126 East 86th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, explores how tea can be expressed across different forms of drinks and desserts.

Within the first hour of opening, more than 600 people queued outside, forming a line stretching more than 1,000 feet — roughly three city blocks.

The opening marks Heytea’s latest chapter in New York following the debut of its Times Square Heytea lab in early 2025, reflecting the brand’s continued commitment to new store formats, product innovation, and localized engagement in the U.S. market. 

A new way to experience tea

A teabar is a concept store that explores ways to experience tea through Teamix, brewed Pot Tea, Deep Matcha, Deep Chocolate, and tea ice cream. The New York teabar introduces more than 26 products to the U.S. for the first time, with Teamix leading the menu as Heytea’s new tea-forward product innovation.

Heytea teabar menu items Pot Tea and Tea Ice Cream. Photos courtesy of Heytea

Built with the same intention found in a craft mocktail, Teamix starts with a carefully selected tea base, then layers fruit, botanicals, or milk to create structure, balance, and texture.

Signature Teamix drinks include King Jasmine Guava Pear, made with Heytea’s King Jasmine tea base, guava, and fresh-pressed crystal pear, and Mountain Oolong Yuzu Apple, which pairs Mountain Oolong with yuzu, fresh-pressed apple, and lemon leaf.

Heytea teabar signature Teamix drinks King Jasmine Guava Pear and Mountain Oolong Yuzu Apple.

Beyond Teamix, the teabar menu also offers other forms of tea-centered products. Brewed Pot Tea presents a quieter expression of tea itself, prepared in a pour-over style and served in a warmed pot to highlight its clean, aromatic character. Deep Matcha uses Jingshan matcha from eastern China's Hangzhou for a richer, more concentrated tea expression, while Deep Chocolate pairs high-intensity cacao with tea. The teabar will also introduce Heytea’s tea ice cream to the U.S. for the first time.

A natural fit for the Upper East Side

“New York has always been one of Heytea’s most important international markets because of how deeply people here engage with food, culture, and neighborhood life,” said Jelynn Jiang, overseas senior brand manager at Heytea.

“Bringing our first overseas teabar to the Upper East Side felt natural. This is a neighborhood where people make time for museums, parks, and conversations. With teabar, our goal is to become part of the fabric by creating a space where people can stay a while with tea.”

Guests sample drinks and desserts at the opening of Teamix in New York on Friday.

As part of the opening, Heytea has developed partnerships with nearby cultural and neighborhood institutions. The brand served as the beverage sponsor of the Guggenheim Museum’s Young Collectors Council gala in May, connecting Heytea with New York’s art and collector communities.

Heytea is also teaming up with the Central Park Conservancy through collectible merchandise and beverage sponsorship for the annual Taste of Summer on June 3. Additionally, the brand is collaborating with Levain Bakery on tea-inspired cookies.

A global brand 

The New York teabar opens as Heytea continues to grow internationally, with more than 100 overseas locations and additional U.S. and international stores in the pipeline. 

Founded in 2012 in Jiangmen, Guangdong, Heytea is credited with creating the first cup of cheese tea — a now widely recognized tea drink that combines freshly brewed tea with a cheese cloud topping. Today, Heytea operates more than 3,500 stores across over 330 cities worldwide, including Shanghai, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and Seoul, with 150 million registered members globally.

In the U.S., Heytea now operates more than 40 stores across New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, Seattle, Boston, and other markets.