Gong cha has activated its Proud to Serve licensing program at two University of California locations — UCSF and UC Berkeley — through a partnership with Ladle & Leaf, the scratch-made soup and salad operator. The move signals a deliberate push by the nearly 2,200-unit bubble tea brand to penetrate nontraditional foodservice channels beyond the standalone storefront.
Both locations are now serving Gong cha's full customizable beverage lineup — including milk teas, fruit teas, matcha drinks and signature milk foam teas — alongside Ladle & Leaf's existing menu. Beverages are handcrafted to order with guest-selected sweetness levels, ice levels and toppings, keeping the brand experience consistent with its traditional locations.
How the Model Works
The Proud to Serve program is a licensing arrangement that lets established foodservice operators add Gong cha to their existing venue with minimal equipment and without building out a dedicated storefront. For the host operator, it creates an additional revenue stream tied to a globally recognized beverage brand. For Gong cha, it generates new points of distribution in high-traffic environments that would otherwise require significant capital to enter through conventional franchising.
"The Proud to Serve program is an important part of how we are building Gong cha's presence beyond the traditional storefront," said Michael Nedelkovich Jr., Vice President of U.S. Non-Traditional Franchise Development at Gong cha. "UCSF and UC Berkeley are the types of high-traffic, community-driven environments where Gong cha can become part of consumers' daily routines."
The format mirrors strategies other beverage and QSR brands have used to crack institutional foodservice — embedding within existing operators rather than competing for real estate. For foodservice directors and multi-unit operators evaluating licensed beverage concepts, the Proud to Serve structure offers a lower-friction path to adding a premium, on-trend category. The beverage industry's ongoing push into nontraditional venues has accelerated post-pandemic as operators seek complementary revenue without expanding their physical footprint.
The Bigger Expansion Picture
The UC partnership is part of a wider nontraditional development push that spans hospitals, airports and other institutional venues. Gong cha has framed the Ladle & Leaf deal as a blueprint it intends to replicate across similar environments nationally.
On the traditional franchise side, Gong cha operates more than 240 locations across 24 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and is targeting more than 500 units across the Americas by 2028. The brand has ranked No. 1 in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500® Tea category for five consecutive years and is rolling out its Gong cha 2.0 platform — focused on digital ordering, automation and optimized store design — to boost throughput and franchisee performance.
For operators in the university and healthcare foodservice space, the arrangement offers a practical case study in beverage program expansion through licensing without the overhead of a full branded buildout. As bubble tea continues to grow its share of the premium beverage market among younger consumers, the campus setting positions Gong cha to build habitual daily consumption among a demographic that will carry those preferences into the broader market.
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.
