Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Lees. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Chad’s Chai began back in 2006, primarily as a wholesale business, supplying chai and loose-leaf teas to other coffee shops. Chad Morris learned how to make fresh chai on the stove from friends of his in grad school. It was only when he was asked to create wedding favors of ready-to-steep chai that he finally created his first actual recipe. A little while later, he was asked to be the “tea guy” for a local restaurant opening in the area. Chad created his first seven blends for the restaurant and, from there, went on to establish relationships with several of the local cafes and coffee shops.
Thomas Lees joined the team around 2017 to help with sales and marketing, allowing Chad to focus more on tea crafting and curation. The company steadily grew over the years, participating in the local farmers market and establishing deep roots in the community. Dreams of our own teahouse where we could host and foster that community began way back in 2019, but it wasn’t until December of 2021 that we finally found a place we could call home.
It looks a little over a year from start to finish, but in February of 2023, we finally opened Chad’s Chai Teahouse. Our goal was to create a space where folks felt welcomed and valuable. We wanted to make sure that there was something there for everyone, whether they had only ever had a Starbucks chai or were interested in single-origin teas steeped in more traditional Asian styles.
We took a bit of a gamble on renting out a fairly large space, not knowing how much interest there would be in a teahouse in a culture and city where coffee is the go-to hot beverage. But from day one of our soft opening, we have been blown away by the support of our community. In many ways, we were massively under-prepared for just how many people would be coming through our doors. But we’re growing and learning and listening and are excited to be a part of our community in this new and deeper way.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have grown really slowly, which, in some ways, I think, lessens how much you feel any “bumps in the road.” Neither of us were interested in putting together some thick business portfolio or trying to grow the company to the point of selling it or anything like that. So, it’s been a slow road for the most part, more than anything else.
Figuring out how to open the teahouse was a big step, though, and getting that off the ground had its struggles for sure. We didn’t have any experience about how to go about getting things started, so that took longer than it should have. And then our first contractor walked away from the project a few months in. There were a myriad of other little struggles along the way to get to where we could do everything the way we wanted. But we were pretty committed to our vision and were blessed to have such a wonderful community of folks around us to guide the way when we felt stuck.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Chad should really be answering this as my side of things is pretty mundane – I more or less just try to get the beautiful things that Chad has made out into the world so folks can experience them. So, if I can brag on Chad –
Chad is the artistic hand behind all our teas. He has developed such an amazing sense of how to blend teas and herbs and spices to really allow everything to shine – to make the final tea somehow more than the sum of its parts. And ask anyone who has ever been around him in the midst of his blending; there is a relentlessness to it, an unwillingness to stop at a blend that is in any way short of what it could be. I really feel like that’s a big part of what sets our teas apart. It’s this deep drive Chad has. I think a lot of artists can probably relate – the feeling that the painting is never quite done.
It can make R&D really drag on, but at this point it’s evident the kind of fruit that degree of care has borne.
What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson – or lessons – I’ve learned has been about taking care of the folks who work for us, mostly about ways to help folks feel heard and listened to, as well as keeping them from getting burnt out. It’s definitely been something that’s been important to me from the start, but learning the concrete, day-to-day ways to do it has been and continues to be the most important lesson for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: chadschai.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/chadschai
- Facebook: facebook.com/chadschai
Image Credits
Amber Renea
