ElevAsian Vendor: Tea Street
We are thrilled to showcase the incredible businesses and performers led by Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) women at the ElevAsian Night Market Fundraiser! Our blog will feature these special owners and performers, allowing you to get to know these amazing women better.
Continue reading to discover more about Victoria Lam (she/her), her business, and what her AAPI identity means to her.
Tell us about your business and the products you offer.
Tea Street is a family-owned bubble tea shop (off of Mississippi and Colorado) that offers premium teas, fresh fruits, and scratch-made syrups. It is a sibling duo, owned and operated by Victoria and Patrick.
Tea Street utilizes premium tea sourced from Taiwan and their menu includes a modern twist on classically inspired drinks from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Drinks don’t include synthetically flavored powders or syrups and the toppings, from pudding and herbal jelly to red and mung bean, are made from scratch.
What inspired you to start your BUSINESS?
Tea Street has been operating for about five years. When we first opened, there were only a handful of boba shops, which is hard to believe when there are so many now!
Growing up, we often traveled to California to patron Asian restaurants we could not find in Colorado. Entering college, both Patrick and I spent time in Asia, specifically Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. It was this experience that really helped us connect how special the foods and drinks we ate at home growing up was.
We were never able to find any of these items at a restaurant that is until we briefly lived in the respective Asian countries we visited. We come from a family of chefs and this was our sign to start our own bubble tea shop - for the food, for the culture, and for the community.
How do you personally identify with your AAPI heritage and how does that shape your business and products?
I am a proud Chinese American. The food and drinks we serve are things we ate and drink growing up at home. My parents were born in Vietnam and my grandparents were born in China, so our drinks are heavily inspired by our Chinese Vietnamese background.
One of our favorite drinks on the menu is the Lemon Sweat, a pickled lemonade. It’s salty, sweet, and refreshing! We use our grandfather’s recipe to pickle the lemons. This a popular drink in Vietnam, often enjoyed on a hot summer day. The salt is hydrating and gives just the right amount of punch.
What can attendees expect when they visit your booth or experience your offerings at ElevAsian?
Come get the Tea!
Literally, amazing tea and catch up with a bestie!
If you're looking for more, we will also have mystery snack bags, which usually include some boba related item with a few other fun surprises. Merchandise is also on sale - reusuable boba straws and the cutest bucket hats.
Share any upcoming projects, events, or new products that attendees should be excited about.
If you don't already know, we have a not so secret menu with famously popular seasonal items. Here's the tea, but shhh** don't tell.
Spring through Summer - rose
Summer - cantaloupe, honeydew, and NEW fruit spritzers
Spring - peach
What message or advice would you like to share with AAPI girls and gender-expansive youth in middle and high school?
It's amazing to witness and be able to participate in an event organized by a non-profit whose focus is on AAPI girls and gender-expansive youth! When I was growing up, I didn't understand what it meant to be Asian and American. In fact, I didn't like being different, so I suppressed my Asian heritage and culture. It's so empowering to see the leadership and network AGI provides for the community and I'm happy to be a tiny supporting factor.
How do you like to celebrate your AAPI identity? You can take this opportunity to share your background/story.
Through our drinks, we celebrate our AAPI identity! Many of our drinks are inspired by food we ate at home. We learn the recipes and techniques from our ancestors and put a modern twist on it. Our parents owned restaurants and their parents owned restaurants. Food is our love language and our creative outlet. It is core to our identity, so we express ourselves through our drinks.
Come meet Victoria and try her tea at the ElevAsian Night Market Fundraiser! Get your tickets today!
