Today we’d like to introduce you to Hai Tang.
Hi Hai, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
My wife and I wanted to open up a boba tea shop many, many years ago, but we have been busy w/our other business ventures. Most of my time is spent being a full-time real estate investor, while my wife spends most of her time helping her clients look younger naturally at Gangnam Medical Spa. We’ve spent the last several years on and off-putting in many hours of traveling and training all over to immerse ourselves in the boba business and perfect our recipe. When the pandemic hit, it ignited our passion even more as we found ourselves with w/a lot of free time on our hands, and we used this time wisely to put our plans into motion finally. We finally opened our Manchester location at the beginning of this year, and it was a hit. Our focus on customer service, the decor of our store, and the quality of our ingredients paid off. The smile on our customers’ faces really brings out our enjoyment and seeing many people travel from far away to visit us has pushed us to expand and bring our shop closer for some and reach new customers. Our Brentwood shop is slated to open on Jan/Feb 2023, and our St. Charles location is set for Mar/Apr 2023.
Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Labor, materials, equipment, and ingredients are expensive, so operating a successful cafe takes a lot of work. There have been some hiccups, but they are minor. It’s mainly affected every small business in the last couple of years.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Honey Bee Tea?
We are a family-owned premium boba tea shop headquartered in the West County area of St. Louis, MO, with two more locations coming to Brentwood and St. Charles. All our drinks have been created from scratch with an emphasis on quality. We only use the finest and freshest organic ingredients from Taiwan. We brew our teas fresh, don’t use cheap powders, and always go with w/the best-tasting ingredients. We sell many fruit and milk teas, including our signature Okinawa Milk Tea with Toasted Creme Brulee and Fresh Passion Fruit Tea. We also have fresh smoothies, Vietnamese coffee, Matcha tea drinks, etc. besides your traditional boba, we have 15 plus other toppings to choose from.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
It has been challenging to try to keep costs down and to be prepared for the unexpected. No one would have ever thought most of the world could be forced to shut down.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.HoneyBT.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/honeybeetea429
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/honeybeebobatea
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@honeybeeteastl
