The Complete Guide to Tea for Cafés: From Chai to Herbal Varieties

Tea is no longer the quiet cousin to coffee in Australian cafés. Customers actively look for quality brews, from bold black teas to calming herbals and spiced chai, and they remember the venues that treat tea with care. A thoughtful tea program can lift average spend, attract new guests and support your brand every hour of the day.

With a smart mix of classics and creative options, tea becomes a dependable part of your drinks lineup, not an afterthought sitting in a box near the till. The key is a clear structure, reliable partners and a menu that staff can talk about confidently. This guide walks through how to build a balanced tea offer that works in a real café, from product selection to service and training.

Core Tea Varieties for Cafés

A café tea menu works best when it starts with a strong core range. These familiar styles give customers confidence, support quick decision-making, and create a reliable base for your signature drinks.

Black Tea – The Café Essential

Black tea is usually the highest-volume tea in cafés, thanks to its bold, robust flavours and its similarity in strength to coffee. For busy venues, partnering with a strong wholesale tea supplier helps keep this workhorse tea consistent across shifts and locations.

It performs especially well during the morning rush and suits customers who want something strong but lighter than a flat white. Stocking both bags and loose-leaf tea for cafés gives you flexibility for takeaway and dine-in service without cluttering the menu.

English Breakfast

English Breakfast is the safety net of your tea menu, the option most guests will recognise and order without hesitation. It anchors the range, helps baristas move quickly through orders, and is often the tea customers judge your overall quality by.

Choosing a blend that holds its character with milk and sugar is crucial, which is where thoughtful tea sourcing for cafés comes in. A good English Breakfast delivers depth, comfort and consistency, cup after cup.

Earl Grey

Earl Grey takes a classic black tea base and layers in fragrant bergamot oil for a citrusy, aromatic profile. It feels familiar yet a touch more refined, which makes it perfect for guests who want something a little special without straying into unfamiliar territory.

Featuring Earl Grey in your list of specialty tea blends lets you tell a simple flavour story that staff can describe in a sentence. Served in a teapot, it can look and feel like a premium experience while remaining quick to prepare.

Green Tea – Light and Refreshing

Green tea brings a fresher, lighter note to your menu, appealing to guests who prefer clean flavours or who are mindful of their caffeine intake. Its reputation for wellness gives it strong appeal at lunchtime and into the afternoon.

A well-chosen green tea also broadens your audience beyond traditional black tea drinkers. Treat it with the same respect as your coffee, including water temperature control and accurate steep times, and regulars will notice the difference.

Green Sencha

Green Sencha is a straightforward way to add a Japanese influence without overwhelming the menu. Its clean, grassy character works well in cafés because it is easy to describe and easy to enjoy, even for customers new to green tea.

Position Sencha as your house green option and keep its preparation simple and repeatable. When you buy it through your regular wholesale tea supply, you gain consistency across all locations and reduce the risk of flavour surprises.

Herbal Tea (Tisanes) – Caffeine-Free Options

Herbal teas, or tisanes, play a crucial role for guests who avoid caffeine or want something soothing later in the day. A small, well-chosen group of herbal tea varieties helps you cater to families, evening trade and wellness-focused customers.

These blends often carry clear functional cues such as “calming” or “digestive”, which makes them easy for staff to recommend. They also give you colourful, fragrant products to display on the bar or retail shelves.

Peppermint

Peppermint is crisp, cooling and widely associated with supporting digestion, which makes it an easy recommendation after meals. Its flavour is familiar and uncomplicated, giving even hesitant tea drinkers a safe option that still feels refreshing.

For venues ordering bulk tea Melbourne-wide, peppermint is a smart high-rotation choice that stores well and sells year-round. It also works nicely in iced versions during warmer months.

Chamomile

Chamomile leans into calm and comfort, popular with guests who want something gentle before bed or during a quiet afternoon. Its soft floral character makes it an ideal match for reading nooks, dessert pairings and relaxed service periods.

Featuring chamomile clearly on your menu gives staff a go-to suggestion for kids, pregnant guests, and anyone steering clear of caffeine. It quietly supports your reputation as a thoughtful, inclusive host.

Lemongrass & Ginger

Lemongrass & Ginger brings bright citrus notes with a warming ginger finish, often linked with immune support and cold-weather comfort. Its lively flavour profile suits customers who find peppermint too sharp or chamomile too mellow.

This blend also performs well in winter promotions and as a base for honey-infused hot drinks. As part of your café tea wholesale order, it adds colour and aroma without adding complexity in preparation.

Masala Chai as a Signature Café Offering

Once your core range is sorted, masala chai can step in as a hero drink with real personality. Spiced, milky and aromatic, it satisfies both tea lovers and coffee regulars seeking something comforting and a little different.

What Makes Chai Different

Traditional chai is a spiced milk tea from India, built on strong black tea simmered with warming spices. It has a richer mouthfeel and deeper flavour compared with a simple tea bag brewed in hot water.

Clarifying this difference helps customers understand why your chai tea for cafés sits at a premium to basic tea. It also supports storytelling on your menu and gives staff plenty to talk about during slower moments.

Preparing Authentic Chai

Authentic chai rewards time and care. Start by choosing a robust black tea base, then layer in spices such as ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and pepper. Gently simmer everything with a mix of water and milk so the flavours can fully develop.

While you can buy ready-made concentrates, crafting chai in-house or using high-quality blends lifts the perceived value of your offer. Training staff on a repeatable method keeps the drink consistent even on busy days.

Gathering Ingredients

Quality begins with the ingredients you bring into the café. Strong black tea, fresh or dried spices and full-cream milk provide the backbone of a memorable chai.

Working with a specialist wholesale tea supplier Melbourne partner simplifies ordering for both tea and spices. Many café teams source their core tea and chai components through the same café tea wholesale catalogue to keep logistics tidy.

Grinding and Simmering Spices

Lightly crushing the spices helps release essential oils and builds complexity in the cup. Simmering them with tea, water and milk over low heat gives time for the flavours to meld and develop warmth.

This process does take longer than dropping a teabag in a cup, so it pays to write a clear prep routine into your daily workflow. Staff can pre-batch a portion of concentrate at quieter times, then finish drinks to order.

Steeping, Sweetening, and Serving

Once the spice and tea base is ready, taste and adjust the sweetness with sugar, honey or panela to match your audience. Strain carefully so the texture stays smooth and pleasant.

Serve chai in your favourite mugs or glassware, ideally with latte art or a light sprinkle of spice on top. Presented well, chai quickly becomes one of the most photographed drinks on your wholesale tea café menu.

Selecting the Right Teas for Café Service

With so many options available, choosing the right mix of teas can feel overwhelming. A structured approach keeps your range focused, profitable and simple for staff to handle.

Building a Practical Wholesale Tea Café Menu

Start by mapping your menu around a small number of core roles. Most cafés do well with a strong black, a reliable green, three or four herbals and one or two signatures such as chai or a seasonal blend.

When working with a wholesale tea supply partner, look for flexible pack sizes and simple ordering codes. That way, you can trial new products without locking up too much cash in slow-moving stock.

Matching Teas to Customer Needs

Think about your day in segments. Mornings often favour black tea and chai, lunchtime leans into green and citrusy herbals, and evenings belong to caffeine-free options. Your menu should reflect this natural rhythm.

Balance crowd-pleasers with one or two options that spark curiosity, such as lesser-known specialty tea blends. This mix keeps regulars happy while giving adventurous guests something new to try.

Operational Considerations for Tea in Cafés

Great tea service relies on systems, not guesswork. A few simple standards around brewing, storage and staff training will lift quality immediately and reduce waste.

Brewing Consistency

Even the best tea tastes flat or bitter if brewed incorrectly. Standardise water temperatures, steeping times and portion sizes for each tea style, then display those guidelines clearly where staff prepare drinks.

Your wholesale tea supplier can often provide brew charts or training materials that match the products you buy. Aligning with those recommendations helps your team get the best out of each blend in your café tea wholesale range.

Staff Confidence and Upselling

Guests are far more likely to order tea when staff can describe it with clarity and enthusiasm. Tasting sessions, short quizzes and menu walkthroughs build confidence and keep product knowledge fresh.

Encourage gentle pairing suggestions, such as chai with banana bread or rooibos with chocolate desserts. When staff genuinely enjoy the tea they serve, upselling starts to happen naturally.

How Bean Around Town Supports Cafés with Tea and Beyond

Bean Around Town partners with café owners who want a strong beverage offer without juggling dozens of suppliers. Tea, coffee and café essentials all sit in one streamlined, café-focused system.

A One-Stop Wholesale Partner for Café Essentials

We supply a wide range of café products, from tea and coffee through to syrups, alternative milks, packaging and cleaning items. Working with us as your wholesale tea supplier reduces admin, streamlines deliveries and keeps your core products flowing smoothly.

If you operate across the city or region, our bulk tea Melbourne capability helps keep your shelves stocked without constant last-minute orders. You can manage everything through our online portal, which we’ve designed to slot easily into your regular ordering routine.

Quality, Training, and Ongoing Support

Quality sits at the centre of what we do, from roasting coffee in-house to selecting tea origins and blends that genuinely suit café service. Our approach to tea sourcing for cafés focuses on flavour, reliability and consistency, so your menu feels confident rather than experimental.

As a local wholesale tea supplier in Melbourne, we understand the pressures and rhythms of hospitality in this city. We draw on that experience to offer practical support, whether you are building a new menu, troubleshooting issues or refining your existing tea program.

Barista Education to Elevate Tea and Coffee Service

We back up our products with hands-on training through our barista education program. Alongside espresso, milk texturing, latte art and equipment care, we cover best practice for brewing and presenting tea in a busy café environment.

Our training helps your team handle loose-leaf tea for cafés, talk comfortably about different blends and present drinks that look and taste consistently great. When your staff feel confident, your entire wholesale tea café menu becomes easier to sell and more enjoyable to drink.

Conclusion

Tea gives cafés a flexible revenue stream that runs from the first takeaway of the morning to the final herbal at closing time. With a clear structure, reliable partners and a staff-friendly menu, your tea program can carry as much weight as your coffee lineup.

Bean Around Town supports this vision with curated products, smart logistics and grounded advice. Talk with the team about building or refreshing your tea program, and explore how café tea wholesale solutions from a local specialist can strengthen your entire wholesale tea supply.

FAQs

Is chai tea the same as herbal tea?

• No, traditional chai is made with black tea and spices, so it contains caffeine, while herbal blends are caffeine-free and made from botanicals instead of tea leaves. We offer both authentic chai tea for cafés and a range of herbal tea varieties, so we can help you build a clear, easy-to-explain tea section for your menu.

What teas are good for cafés?

• A strong café lineup usually includes English Breakfast, Earl Grey, a green like Sencha, a few herbals and a signature option such as chai. We work with you to select the right mix from our specialty tea blends and core range, tailored to your customers and service style.

What are the five main types of tea?

• The five main types commonly used on menus are black, green, white, oolong and herbal (tisanes). We help you choose hero teas from each group through thoughtful tea sourcing for cafés, so your offer feels complete without becoming complicated.