The Format
Heytea opened its first U.S. Gelato Lab+ at 863 Broadway in New York's Union Square on October 16, adding a made-in-store gelato and sorbet program to its classic new-style tea menu. The location is the chain's fourth lab-format store outside China — following outposts in Times Square, Toronto, and Bangkok — and the first globally to carry the Gelato Lab+ designation as a standalone concept.
The Union Square store offers seven core flavors and one rotating limited-edition scoop, all produced fresh daily on-site using real fruit, fresh milk, and ingredients drawn from Heytea's existing drink lineup. Standout SKUs include Mango Coconut Sticky Rice Gelato — a riff on the brand's jasmine tea–mango drink with chewy sticky rice folded in — and Grape Basque Cheesecake Gelato, inspired by the chain's Crisp Grape Boom beverage. A dairy-free Jasmine Yuzu Sorbet and "Cement" Black Sesame Gelato round out the core menu. The premium made-in-store positioning puts the format firmly in specialty dessert territory, a category seeing growing traction inside food-forward retail concepts.
Lab Model Explained
Heytea uses the "lab" label for its highest-tier store format — a product-development environment where the brand tests whether tea can translate into new food and beverage forms. Gelato entered the lab ecosystem in 2019 at Heytea's OCT Harbour location in Shenzhen. When an experimental module proves out, it can spin off as a dedicated concept, which is how Gelato Lab+ came to exist as its own store format. The Times Square lab, which debuted in February 2025 with 10 globally exclusive tea drinks, sold more than 3,500 cups on opening day — a data point the brand is leaning on as it justifies the premium lab format's U.S. expansion.
The Union Square interior reflects the same experimental sensibility: exposed brick, visible structural elements, and mechanical systems left in view under an "unfinished" design concept. "We're excited to bring another lab to the city. New York has always rewarded curiosity, and it continues to be where we try new ideas," said Jelynn Jiang, Senior Brand Manager for International Markets at Heytea.
Local Partnerships and Scale
Heytea is pairing the launch with two time-limited local collaborations. From October 26 to 30, New York-based artist Jon Burgerman contributes limited-edition stickers, mini canvas totes, and color-in cup sleeves. From November 2 to 8, the brand teams with Tompkins Square Bagels on an Everything Gelato — cream cheese gelato folded with everything bagel seasoning, served with a fresh bagel from the East Village shop — limited to 30 servings per day.
The local-collab playbook matters beyond marketing. As specialty food-and-beverage operators compete for urban foot traffic, community partnerships have become a measurable driver of earned media and repeat visits. Heytea's ability to execute hyper-local activations while running more than 3,500 stores across 330-plus cities and serving 150 million registered members globally suggests a franchise model built around experimentation at the unit level, not standardization alone. In the U.S., the brand now operates more than 45 stores across New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, Seattle, Boston, and other markets — a footprint that has grown substantially since its domestic debut and one that positions Heytea as a serious player in the premium dispensed-beverage and specialty-dessert segments.
A buy-one-get-one offer on all menu items ran October 16 through 18 to drive trial at the new location.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
