Amid the blazing summer weather, hundreds of people queued up at the center of Cupertino Main Street on Aug. 1, anticipating the grand opening of HeyTea’s newest location. The scent of fresh herbal tea wafted through the shop, while lush green plants and minimalistic wooden furniture greeted each customer. Calm classical music met the chatter of the people inside as customers lounged on chairs, awaiting their drinks.
“It was really hot outside,” junior Arelyn Ma said. “They were offering water and tea every few minutes or so. It wasn’t too bad, and their service was pretty quick.”
The HeyTea franchise, initially named Royal Tea, originated in a small alley in Jiangmen, China, in 2012. When founder Neo Nie first opened Royal Tea, his use of fresh milk instead of the common powder alternative put a unique spin on the drink. Similarly, Royal Tea’s original cheese tea, a combination of jasmine tea topped with a salty cheese foam, uses real cream cheese instead of cheese powder. Royal Tea soon rebranded to HeyTea due to trademark issues.
Initially, HeyTea popularized cheese tea in Asia, which soon made its way into the United States as a staple in boba shops. An example of cheese tea on the HeyTea menu is the Cloud Crisp Grape, consisting of chopped purple grapes, jasmine green tea and their signature cheese foam.
“The grape flavor was really refreshing and the tea foam’s creamy flavor goes well with the slushy,” Ma said. “I haven’t seen this drink as much in other places, so it’s a signature of HeyTea.”
By 2015, only three years after HeyTea’s founding, Nie owned 50 HeyTea stores. The franchise expanded into the U.S. with its first store in Manhattan, New York in 2023. In the past year, HeyTea has made its way into northern California with the opening of stores in Daly City, San José and Sunnyvale. The boba chain now has over 3,000 stores worldwide.
For the first three days of the new Cupertino branch, HeyTea Cupertino offered a “buy one, get one free” deal to drum up excitement, drawing large crowds on their long-awaited opening day. The queue for drinks grew immediately, with the wait time throughout the 3-day period rising to more than two hours.
“Even though it was probably a really stressful and busy day for all the workers, customer service was really great,” Lynbrook alumni and customer Dorothy Ko said. “All the workers I talked to were extremely respectful and kind. Overall, the service was really good.”
Following HeyTea’s opening, third-party social media accounts unaffiliated with the official HeyTea corporation created a significant boost in publicity for the store. Many of these posts were videos showcasing the lengthy wait outside HeyTea as hundreds swarmed the area en masse.
“I saw HeyTea’s grand opening on Instagram,” Ko said. “I was very intrigued because I knew Sunnyvale had a location, and I was excited to see that they had a location so close to where I lived.”
A mile south of Apple Park, the store’s interior aesthetic reflects Silicon Valley’s tech-minded atmosphere: streamlined and minimalistic. The store’s location, on Main Street, and near Cupertino High School, has encouraged large crowds. HeyTea Cupertino also offers a large outdoor seating area, allowing customers to gather at HeyTea to study and work.
“A lot of other boba places have a smaller space, so it invites you to just get drinks and then drink them elsewhere,” customer Sam Gee said. “HeyTea seems more like a coffee shop: buy the drink, sit in the seating area and enjoy.”
The Cupertino location differs from other HeyTea stores with its exclusive drink, iYerba. Marketed as a “superfood” drink and served in a clear jar, iYerba features a variety of unique ingredients, including Yerba Mate tea, kale-apple juice, mint leaves, grapefruit pulp and chia seeds. Indeed, HeyTea’s original drinks and natural ingredients, from coconut to mulberry, are another selling point for some customers.
“HeyTea offers flavors that are a little less conventional, so I wanted to try a mulberry drink,” Ko said. “It tastes very natural, like real fruits, so that stands out to me. It’s not every day you see a boba place offering mulberry- or grape-flavored teas.”
