Heytea has entered Thailand with the opening of its first store at CentralWorld in Bangkok, bringing its Heytea Lab concept to Southeast Asia for the first time.

Located on the first floor of CentralWorld, the store combines a tea lab, a bake lab, and a gelato lab into a single format. It is the brand’s third Heytea Lab outside China, following locations in the US and Canada.

The store’s design draws on Thailand’s floating-market culture, incorporating boat-inspired wooden elements into the retail environment.

The opening also marks the global debut of ‘teaAir’, a tea-based cloud topping developed from brewed tea, coconut, milk fat and air. Localisation extends to the bake and gelato ranges, including a Thai Milk Tea Croissant Egg Tart and Lime Thai Milk Gelato.

Heytea Lab is the brand’s experimental retail format, designed as an “inspiration hub” for testing new products, categories and customer experiences. First launched in 2016, the format goes beyond a conventional beverage store by bringing together different food- and drink-making concepts under one roof.

Beyond Heytea Lab, the brand operates other formats, including Heytea Bar and Heytea Craft, giving it a range of store concepts for different markets and locations.

Heytea began its international expansion in 2018 and has accelerated its overseas rollout since 2023, entering markets including the US, UK, Australia and Canada. 

The brand now operates about 4000 stores globally, including more than 120 outside Mainland China.