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Tea
Crafting Your Café or Tea House Menu
Whether you’re adding tea to your café offerings or crafting a tea house menu, the task may initially seem daunting. At Royal New York, our dedicated tea team is happy to offer some friendly advice and steer you in the right direction. Caitlin Normann breaks down how to choose brewing methods, tea flavors, and more!
How to Start Your Café or Tea House Menu
Should I use loose leaf teas or sachets?
Firstly, consider what brewing method makes the most sense for your business model. If you’re a café with heavy foot traffic or little-to-no seating, you may want to consider serving tea bags. RNY offers a variety of pre-portioned pyramid tea sachets for just this reason! However, you might have heard that tea sachets are typically filled with low quality leaves. That being said, there’s never a question of quality when it comes to any of our offerings. When we manufacture our sachets, we use the exact same tea used in our loose leaf offerings to ensure your customers are still being provided with overall freshness and well-rounded flavors.
On the other hand, loose leaf teas provide a higher-end experience as well as many potential ways to be brewed. Baristas can easily steep a cup behind the counter and serve it, or you can offer your customers loose leaf tea and hot water to brew a cup at their table. Furthermore, batch brewing iced tea is fairly popular among tea house menus and coffee shop offerings. In fact, cafés with nitro systems can even keep brewed tea on tap!
What flavors should I choose?
Now that you’ve decided how to brew, it’s time to select the tea varieties that will make up your offerings list or tea house menu. We recommend starting with no more than 5 teas. If you’re overwhelmed looking at our wholesale tea offerings, imagine how your customer may feel (while standing in line at a crowded counter, no less!).
If you have a coffee menu, you can use it to guide your tea menu. Are your coffees primarily single-origin? Then consider selecting single-origin teas that share the same level of traceability. Our Golden Yunnan from Mr. Chaoyun Li in China or our Organic Matcha Kakitsubata from Osada Seicha in Japan are great tasting teas with equally great stories. Likewise, if your coffee menu lists blends or flavored offerings, you may want to have an emphasis on classic or creative tea blends as well. While we recommend a mix of both, you know what will be best for your business.
Popular Offerings for Your Café or Tea House Menu
Pure Teas
JASMINE GREEN is a staple for green tea & scented tea lovers alike! Hailing from China, this tea is scented with fresh jasmine blossoms, giving it a strong, floral aroma.
Ever popular for lattes, MATCHA can also be served on its own for a different experience. Don’t be afraid to experiment with it! Matcha can compliment a variety of flavors, from strawberry to ginger to chocolate. Get creative with it and offer a well-crafted, killer drink.
Our ASSAM TGFOP is bold and brisk. This black tea comes to us all the way from Assam, India. Great for those who like to take their tea with milk, Assam TGFOP will hold its own and offer a caffeine boost to those who need it.
Tea Blends
If there is one tea to familiarize yourself with, it’s EARL GREY. Malty and bergamot-forward, this is our top-selling tea at RNY!
No menu is complete without a classic breakfast tea! A blend of black teas sourced from different countries around the world, our NEW YORK BREAKFAST is a customer-favorite and pairs well with all breakfast offerings, such as eggs, croissants, and more.
Second only to Earl Grey, MASALA CHAI is a must have for your tea house menu or café offerings list. Ours is extra strong so it can cut through milk without losing the elements of spice.
Fruity and tart, our ORGANIC HIBISCUS BERRY can be served hot or batch brewed for iced tea. This is a total thirst quencher, and it’s great for anyone who that’s looking to sip on something refreshing. For a fun twist, try adding it to a lemonade base!
MOROCCAN MINT is a great option for all the mint fans out there. Peppermint and spearmint meet smoky gunpowder green tea from China, resulting in a naturally sweet cup.
Lastly, we have ORGANIC CHAMOMILE. No offerings list is complete without this sleepy time classic. This herbal tea is caffeine-free with warm and inviting honey notes.
Final Thoughts
Of course, you’re not limited to these picks. We’re proud to provide an extensive offerings list of quality wholesale teas at Royal New York. The best part: you can request samples before committing! If you’re interested in any of the above teas or others from our website, this is a great way to ensure that you select teas that will work best for your business and keep customers coming back for more. We wish you the best of luck as you begin your tea journey!
