The short form: We are increasing our price structure for the tea experiences, from £35 to £48 per person starting in September. This is necessary due to an increase in rent (we don’t have to leave our space yet! more on that later) as well as all other cost increases. This price increase will allow us to reinvest into the business and improve the experience as well as raise our pay closer to minimum wage.

The long form: In early May, we spoke openly to you about our time left in this space, and that next spring was going to be our deadline to leave. We have been spending time looking at suitable spaces to move to, with some of your help. The rents around here seem to have skyrocketed in the past few years, which is surprising to us given that so many businesses had to close during the pandemic. To find a new space and invest in the fit out and set up again is not feasible for us at this time. We expressed to our current landlord our contribution to Japanese tea culture to the small community in Ancoats in the hope that they would reconsider us before renting the space out to someone else. After weeks of discussion, we have finally agreed on an acceptable price increase to stay for another two years. With this in mind, we need a new price structure not only to survive, but to thrive and reinvest in the business to become the absolute best we can be. From September 2023, our standard course menu will be £48 per person.

To be honest, we feel a bit embarrassed to admit that the business has not really been profitable for the past 3 years or so. We will never compromise on our principles to use the finest selection of teas and highest quality of ingredients, and even though it would be an easy way to cut costs it is not even a consideration. There are so many positive aspects of the business and we love what we do, but we have intentionally made business decisions that mean we make less money. We are trying to find a balance that allows the business to thrive, whilst still providing a unique, rare, top quality experience to all of our guests. Thank you so much for your understanding and patience.

If you are interested in what we do and the reasons behind this increase, please keep reading:

Since we moved completely to the tea course menu in 2020, we have not increased prices apart from changing the minimum from 2 course to 3 course early this year. We are fairly certain you are aware of the tough times faced by hospitality, with lockdowns and tier restrictions we were almost closed for a whole year. Not all (hospitality) businesses can change to takeaway to survive during the pandemic, at least not for the tea experience we provide. But with the help of the government, and your support of tea and teaware orders and our pay cut, we managed to survive through it. We never received a discount for rent, just a deferment that we are still paying for another year. Our service charge almost tripled out of the blue in the middle of the pandemic. When we had hopes that we were finally were coming out of dark times, the invasion of Ukraine began. For around 4 months, we had to rely on very expensive shipping options from Japan such as DHL and FedEx as Japan post has been stopped (Japan post relies on national carriers but their route to Europe was halted). Then the inflation and cost of living crisis came. Every single bill of ours has gone up. We don’t want you to feel sorry for us - we are just trying to explain our situation these past years. We are actually very lucky to still exist, and we don’t take that lightly! We understand inflation does not only affect businesses, it affects everyone. Nevertheless, we are unwilling to sacrifice on quality. We know that this price increase will cause us to lose guests, but we hope those guests will still consider us when looking for a special, non-daily experience. We are very excited about the future possibilities that will now be possible. We will continue sharing a fine selection of teas from our partnerships with tea farmers and tea producers in Japan, importing the best wagashi ingredients possible to make and serve fresh wagashi, as well as serving those teas and wagashi using a selection of ware from artists we either have met in person or aim to meet in the future. The support we receive from you allows us to in turn support them.

It is also worth mentioning that throughout 7 years of opening we have never once taken tips (those we couldn't give back we donated to charity). We have always believed in first class service with transparent pricing, meaning there is no hidden cost or added service charge, like most places nowadays. We know that lowering the advertised price will bring more people through our doors, and we could then start accepting tips and add a service charge to achieve a similar overall price increase, but transparency is too high on our list of priorities. We believe if you have visited us in the last three years, you have experienced the level of quality and service we offer inside this small space. We only serve a maximum of 6 guests at any single point of time during our Quiet Tea Time or Casual Tea Time opening. It is easy enough to calculate but we serve around 45-48 guests a week. We have never placed a stranger guest next to you if you have visited us as a solo guest and it is something we are very proud of (excluding chakai). The time we spend on explaining the menu, going into details and sharing knowledge with our guests is also something very unique to the experience we provide. During our sit in service, we also do not do any take away service to ensure our attention is 100% on the guests who have made a reservation to visit us. We love what we do, and we couldn’t do it without you. We are sorry to be sharing this news as we know it will make it harder on our regular guests, but we are confident in our vision for the future and hope you can stick with us and witness it with us!

PS This does not affect the existing voucher holders. The tea experience will still be honoured within the expiry date.

M+J
Cha-ology