Heytea Dunks a Biscuit: Its First UK Lab Opens in Chinatown With Three Menu Items You Can Only Get Here
The Chinese tea chain that gave the world cheese tea opened its first UK lab at 118-120 Shaftesbury Avenue on 30 October 2026, with three UK exclusives built on tea and biscuits.
Heytea, the Chinese chain that gave the world cheese tea, has turned the British habit of tea with a biscuit into a menu. Its first UK lab opened on 30 October 2026 at 118-120 Shaftesbury Avenue in London's Chinatown, and three of its creations are sold only in the UK.
The headline drink is Rock Oolong Caramel Biscuit, which according to Heytea layers roasted Rock Oolong and milk under a caramel biscuit cloud, then finishes it with torched brown sugar and biscuit crumbs. The Bake Lab adds a Caramel Biscuit Croissant Egg Tart, a biscuit spin on the store's Original Croissant Egg Tart. Over at the ice cream counter, Caramel Biscuit Milk Tea Ice Cream is made with freshly brewed black tea and caramelised biscuit spread.
Heytea calls the format a lab because each section experiments with tea in a different form. The London store covers two levels and 218 square metres in a Victorian-era building between Chinatown and Soho, and it brings 12 items to the UK for the first time. It is the brand's fifth lab outside China. New York has two, counting the recently opened gelato lab+, while Toronto and Bangkok have one each.
The usual drinks menu is here too, including Mango Coconut Sticky Rice, which Heytea created for its global collaboration with BLACKPINK's Lisa. It turns the Thai dessert into a drink made with freshly cooked sticky rice and fresh-cut mango over a coconut milk slush.
The shelves carry lab merchandise, including an egg tart plate, a ceramic mug, a tote bag, a tumbler, Longjing whole-leaf tea and jasmine tea incense sticks.
According to the company, Heytea was founded in Jiangmen, Guangdong, in 2012 and made the first cup of cheese tea. It opened its first UK store in Soho in August 2023 and now has 18 UK stores across nine cities, out of more than 3,500 worldwide.
