Save Our Tea House!

For the past 8 years, West China Tea has been building community in Austin Texas based around the traditional Chinese tea service of gong fu cha. This practice fosters a safe, cooperative, and fun environment where people can connect without the use of alcohol. We've worked hard for nearly a decade and built two Austin landmark tea houses, The Tea Spot and Guan Yin Tea House, as well as serving tea at dozens of parties, festivals, concerts, art openings, fundraisers, and conferences. We've found that when people come together over tea, something magical happens - people express themselves through conversation, music, art, poetry, dance, and deeply vulnerable interaction. Many of our events have been large dance parties where 80+ people are dancing to music and drinking tea rather than alcohol.
In the spring of 2020 we closed Guan Yin to renovate, rebrand, and present Austin with the brand new and improved West China Tea House - and then Covid happened. Our landlord has refused to give us a break on rent and as a result we have been paying $4000/month on a huge building that we are unable to host guests in. We have been developing our online presence and working hard to finish renovations and get the tea house up and running; however it's a race against time as we struggle to keep making rent and paying our employees. 
If we can't turn things around financially, we'll be forced to close the tea house and abandon the project.  We've already sunk tens of thousands of dollars into the renovations, building beautiful outdoor seating areas, painting, replacing windows, and building unique and striking architectural pieces to help make West China Tea House a world-class place for tea culture and community. If we are forced to abandon the project, not only will all of the hard work and money we've invested be lost, but it will cost us $15,000 just to pay our final month's rent, pay the penalty for breaking our lease, and move-out costs. 
With your help we can get the tea house finished and open for business. Once we're able to finish renovations we'll be able to sustain ourselves through the tea house revenues, but until we can we are precariously close to having to close our doors. Help us bring back one of the most unique and beloved community spaces in Austin, as well as helping us to realize our dream of building Community Tea Houses in cities around the world!
Thank you so much to our local and global community for getting us where we are. This has been a most unexpected and amazing journey - we never anticipated the power of tea to bring people together. We truly believe that the connection and joy that are fostered through tea service is a powerful medicine for a heavily-divided and disconnected world. Our dream is to share this transformative culture with everyone. Right now we need help to make it through these unprecedented times! We thank you in advance for your donations and support - we hope to open many more tea houses and share tea with each and every one of you!
Sincerely,
The West China Tea Team

#SmallBusinessRelief