Heytea opened its first U.S. Gelato Lab+ on October 16 at 863 Broadway in Union Square, New York, adding eight made-in-store gelato and sorbet flavors to its classic new-style tea lineup. The location is the fourth heytea lab-format store outside China and the brand's most elevated store concept globally, following lab openings in Times Square, Toronto, and Bangkok.
The Format Strategy
The Gelato Lab+ is not a standalone dessert concept bolted onto a tea shop — it is the latest module to graduate from heytea's internal product-experimentation system. The brand first introduced gelato as a lab module at its OCT Harbour store in Shenzhen in 2019, using the format to test whether tea bases could translate into frozen dessert form. After years of refinement, the concept now stands as its own store format, something operators across the restaurant and specialty beverage space have increasingly attempted as they look to extend daypart sales and average check size.
All eight flavors are produced fresh in-store daily using real fruit, fresh milk, and ingredients drawn directly from the brand's drink repertoire. Standout options include Mango Coconut Sticky Rice Gelato — jasmine tea-mango gelato layered with coconut sticky rice — and "Cement" Black Sesame Gelato, built from roasted black sesame paste, milk, and cream. A dairy-free Jasmine Yuzu Sorbet rounds out the range for non-dairy guests, blending green jasmine tea with yuzu, fresh-pressed apple, and lime.
Local Activation Model
The opening underscores a broader unit-level strategy that balances global scale with hyper-local programming. From November 2 to 8, heytea will partner with Tompkins Square Bagels, an East Village institution, to release Everything Gelato — a cream cheese gelato folded with everything bagel seasoning, served with a fresh bagel and limited to 30 servings per day. Earlier, from October 26 to 30, New York-based artist Jon Burgerman will bring limited-edition stickers, mini canvas totes, and color-in cup sleeves to the location.
That local-collaboration playbook echoes what multi-unit restaurant operators have found effective in urban markets: exclusive, time-limited offerings that drive both foot traffic and social media visibility without requiring permanent menu changes. The Union Square opening featured a buy-one-get-one-free promotion on all menu items from October 16 to 18, a tool commonly used by emerging beverage brands to accelerate trial in competitive markets.
U.S. Footprint Context
Heytea now operates more than 45 U.S. stores across New York, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, Seattle, and Boston. Globally, the brand counts more than 3,500 stores in over 330 cities and 150 million registered members. The Times Square lab location, which opened in February 2025, sold more than 3,500 cups on its opening day — a benchmark that signals strong consumer appetite for the format in the U.S. market.
Jelynn Jiang, Senior Brand Manager for International Markets at heytea, framed the Union Square opening around discovery as much as loyalty: "We hope the Gelato Lab+ becomes the kind of neighborhood spot people return to for a favorite, while still checking the menu to see what we're releasing next."
For the broader beverage and foodservice industry, heytea's lab model offers a replicable template: use existing store infrastructure to incubate product extensions, graduate successful experiments into dedicated formats, and anchor each new location with local partnerships that make corporate-scale brands feel neighborhood-native. As covered by Food & Beverage Magazine, that kind of experiential differentiation has become a key lever for premium beverage brands competing against both established chains and independent operators in dense urban markets.
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.
