International drink sensation Happy Lemon is celebrating the grand opening of their first Texas location this weekend. The new tea shop is located at 169 N. Plano Road, Richardson, and will have a buy-one-get-one sale on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 18 and 19.
Founded in 2006, Happy Lemon quickly became popular in China and Taiwan, thanks to their signature Rock Salt Cheese Tea. Since then, they have expanded to countries across the globe, including Korea, Australia, and Great Britain. They opened their first shops in the United States in 2014 and have become a go-to boba spot from San Francisco to Boston.
Happy Lemon serves a range of tea-based drinks and smoothies ranging from ordinary black tea with lemon to the exotic dragon fruit-lychee or ube with puff cream. They also offer matcha smoothies, milk teas, boba, and drinks made with the popular Japanese probiotic Yakult.
However, the menu item they are most known for is their cheese tea. It may not sound very appetizing at first, but this sweet and salty drink option is wildly popular in Asian markets, and it is only a matter of time before it sweeps America as bubble tea has. The “cheese” topping is actually a foamy combination of milk and cream cheese that is then sprinkled with salt to give it a savory finish. The mixture can be added to the top of cold drinks and is best enjoyed when drank like traditional coffee instead of through a straw.
While it may not be a common option yet, once people get over the name, cheese tea is often a big hit.
“You can order less of the tea and more of the cheese,” says Jasmine Chin, a managing member of the Happy Lemon in California. “Sometimes people get triple layers of cheese; some people even say they want cheese on the side. They’ll save it to add later on.”