Morning tea culture enters Beijing, Guangzhou’s time-honored brand Taotaoju opens its first Beijing store in Sanlitun

On November 1, Taotaoju, a time-honored Chinese brand with a history of 141 years, officially opened its first store in Beijing. The new store is located in Taikoo Li West District, Sanlitun. This Cantonese tea and snack restaurant from Guangzhou has entered the North China market for the first time after opening stores in Xiamen, Shenzhen and Shanghai, bringing authentic Cantonese cuisine, barbecued pork, tea snacks and Guangzhou tea-drinking culture to northern diners.

Taotaoju was founded in the sixth year of Guangxu. Kang Youwei wrote a plaque for it, which means \”It is a pleasure to come here to drink tea. Taotao\”. In the hundred years since the restaurant opened, Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Chen Canyun, Liu Haisu and other literati and poets have all been guests at Taotaoju. The menu of Lu Xun’s family banquet has been preserved, and it is known as \”the most culturally charming old teahouse\”.

The first Tao Tao Ju store in Beijing adopts the design style of the Lingnan Xiguan mansion, replicating Lingnan architectural elements such as Manchurian windows, sliding doors, flower-stepped bricks, and wood carvings to restore the unique atmosphere of a Cantonese tea house. After arriving in Beijing, Taotaoju will maintain the same four-hour business cycle as in Guangzhou: \”morning tea in the morning, lunch market at noon, Hong Kong-style afternoon tea, and then dinner market.\” The morning tea period starts at 10 o\’clock every day.

When Cantonese cuisine goes north, both technology and ingredients are difficult problems. How to keep the original taste? According to Taotaoju, 90% of the kitchen technical force and service team are selected and trained in Guangzhou, and their material selection requirements, cooking techniques, and service standards are all the same as those in Guangzhou. The back kitchen does not use the central kitchen model for food processing. Instead, it continues to be purely handmade in the store to preserve traditional craftsmanship and restore the flavor of the dishes to the greatest extent.

In 2019, after Taotaoju opened its first store in Shanghai, it opened four more stores there. There are currently 29 stores across the country, all of which adopt a nationwide direct-sales and in-store-made business model. There is no mass production or franchise stores. According to Taotaoju, it will try to expand stores in Beijing in the future based on market demand.