An iced tea chain is opening its first location in Fort Worth: HTeaO, which specializes in tea, water, and now coffee as well, is opening in north Fort Worth at 5101 N. Tarrant Pkwy., with a grand opening event scheduled for Friday, May 3.

Founded in Amarillo in 2009, HTeaO sells "ultra-premium tea," water, and coffee, which they only just recently added at the beginning of 2024.

They have 134 locations open or in the works, including stores in Allen, Arlington, Bedford, Burleson, Colleyville, Dallas, Denton, Flower Mound, Garland, Grapevine, Highland Village, Lake Worth, Lewisville, McKinney, North Richland Hills, Plano, Southlake, and Weatherford.

They're known for having 26 flavors of sweetened and unsweetened tea, made using a "proprietary" water filtration system. A concept dedicated to tea might seem flimsy, but in Texas, tea is a very big deal.

Flavors include mint tea, coconut tea, peach tea, raspberry tea, blueberry tea, chai tea, and watermelon tea. The "26 flavors" is a bit of an overstatement since about half of them are unsweetened versions of the same flavors. People like to combine two flavors in one drink.

Adding coffee has given them a new suite of drinks like iced caramel macchiato and honey cinnamon macchiato.

Their locations allow in-store consumption of tea, although like all of these beverage chains, the emphasis is in drive-thru.

Their drinks come in mega-large portions such as 51 ounces. Prices range from $2.79 for a small (24 ounce) tea to the aforementioned 51-ounce "huge" tea for $3.99. An iced horchata is $5.29.

They also use pellet ice, another fetish object for Texans. Unfortunately, like all of these drive-through drink places, their business model relies entirely on single-serving plastic cups which are a blight on the planet.

HTTeaO has been on an expansion run since January 2023, when they announced a minority partnership with two Dallas-based private equity firms, Crux Capital and Trive Capital, and they're heavily into soliciting franchisees.

The new store will be the first HTeaO owned by franchisees Allison and Jonathan Lovelace who say in a statement, “We're thrilled to introduce HTeaO to the Fort Worth/Keller community community. Being conveniently positioned on the side of the North Tarrant Parkway, our location serves as the perfect stop whether you need a morning cup to jump start your day or a pick me up to refuel after a long day's work. With our convenient drive-thru and in-store options, we're excited to be a destination for guests to refresh and energize anytime of the day, making their next journey a little easier.”