East-West Tea looks to expand on campus
East-West Tea launched last semester, but the student-run company has already made a splash on the Rice campus. Through a partnership with the Hoot and other organizations, the business, which prepares and sells boba tea, sold a total of 4,400 units last semester, according to general manager Dillon Chai.
“Boba,” or “bubble tea,” is a tea-based beverage containing tapioca pearls. East-West currently offers six flavors of the drink: Thai, milk, oreo, jasmine, taro and Vietnamese Coffee. Though East-West is not as immediately focused on developing new flavors, Chai noted that developing a fruit-flavored beverage is next on the list.
Chai, a Baker College senior, said the size of the company has more than doubled since its public launch last February. The company began with five founding members and now employs a total of 13, including five new hires.
“It’s been so much fun watching people with the same passion of entrepreneurship and just making good tea come together,” he said.
The founding members began creating their recipes in the Martel College kitchen. Now, the company makes batches of boba in kitchen of Sammy’s in the Rice Memorial Center.
Much of last year was spent tweaking recipes and gauging student interest. The entrepreneurs spent time interacting with potential customers, offering samples and seeking out student feedback on their teas. Iris Gau, a Duncan College sophomore, attended one of East-West’s tasting events last semester.
“It’s cool to know people that are a part of [East-West],” Gau said. “It makes you realize that anyone can think of an idea and make it happen.”
Moving forward, East-West hopes to distribute even more widely. East-West is currently a registered LLC, though not supported by the Student Center like Coffeehouse, the Hoot and Rice Bikes, and sells in the Hoot on Tuesdays and Sundays beginning at 9 p.m. They also cater additional events around campus.
“Our main goal is to make our tea more available to the students of Rice, whether that’s through servery tasting events or eventually selling directly to the customer,” Chai said.
Chai said the business hopes to continue expanding its reach.
“For the upcoming semester we just really want to increase our presence on campus, whether that’s catering Rice sporting events, supplying the afternoon club sales, or offering taste tests in the servery,” Chai said.
Through it all, Chai said, East-West is still changing and evolving.
“We are such a young organization that we truly have the opportunity to take it wherever we want to go,” Chai said. “East-West Tea is a blank canvas right now, and it’s up to us to decide how we fit within the Rice landscape.”
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