Beloved Taipei Tea Shop to Open First U.S. Location

It's an odd time to expand a restaurant, but some concepts are continuing to grow. One popular international outfit, Taipei-born tea shop machi machi, is opening its first United States location on October 29 in New York City.

The cozy shop is famous for its fresh teas, cream cheese foam, and milk teas. The New York location, at 33 West 32nd Street between 5th and Broadway, will be 50th machi machi worldwide, with shops in in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Thailand, among other countries.

Even as the global coronavirus pandemic shrinks food and beverage sales, many machi machi locations continue to draw long, enthusiastic lines. One of their most popular beverages is a black milk tea with panna cotta and crème brûlée milk. They also sell pre-packaged takeaway teas and milks that are, in my humble opinion, incredibly beautiful.

"We always wanted to bring machi machi to the United States," said KJ Hsu, co-Founder of machi machi, in an email to Food & Wine. "We felt that there were more and more people enjoying tea drinks in the last few years."

She continued, "We’ve been preparing to come here (the United States) since last year, and chose New York as the first location to launch, because this is the city where you can find all the best brands of the world! Inevitably our opening plan was postponed for a few months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, so now, we couldn't be more excited to open here and to provide a safe, comforting environment."

The New York machi machi shop will be open seven days a week, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.