There’s a new place in town to enjoy delicious healthy food and some indulgent desserts, along with boutique tea, coffee and creative cocktails
“Creating Cha Bei has been a longstanding dream of mine: to bridge the gap between my love for culture, design and tea with a place for everyone to share their stories and good moments,” says Joanna Lui, founder and curator of the new outlet at Galaxy Macau.
Inspired by Joanna’s passion for healthy living, the café offers a wide variety of fresh and wholesome food, but also a range of fantastic desserts for those with a sweeter tooth.
Rather than a traditional Starter – Main Course – Dessert structure, the menu is divided into four sections with different styles of dining depending on your mood and preference: “Healthy & Wholesome Choices”; “Comfort Choices”; “Communal Choices” and “Guilty Choices”.
“Cha Bei is actually a very special and unique type of outlet because there are three different elements in the café: retail, dining and grab ‘n go outside,” explained Joanna when CLOSER spoke to her at the opening event in January.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel for these past two years, so I went to many different countries, and I’ve taken all the inspirations and things that I’ve learned from London, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and put it into creating this place”.
For example, from Amsterdam comes four high-backed Tulip chairs by designer Marcel Wanders. The prominent pastel pink colours were inspired by an afternoon tea Joanna had in a restaurant London.
“And green is my favourite colour, it represents nature and whenever you see it you feel very comfortable and relaxed”.
Local influences are also prominent:
“I also wanted to bring it back to my roots. Hong Kong is my home, and of course now Macau also, so we used a lot of Hong Kong designers for other elements, and the coffee is roasted here in Macau,” adds Joanna.
Commenting on the name of the shop, Joanna explains that Cha Bei means ‘tea cup’ in Chinese, and just as there is a wide variety of food and beverages on the menu, there are layers of meaning to the choice of this name too.
“I believe in every teacup there is a unique story. For example I have a teacup at home that was given to me by my mother and it’s been with me for many years. Even though it has a crack in it, I don’t want to throw it away because there’s a sweet memory behind it. So that’s why we specifically named it Cha Bei so whenever you come here you can bring home a sweet memory,” notes Joanna.
“Tea has always been a very essential part of Chinese culture and I personally really love to drink tea. It’s part of my family culture also. There are many teas here from many different countries so that is a way to bring different cultures together”.
“It also celebrates the fact that all tea, not unlike people, are essentially derived from the same plant, but are expressed uniquely and differently through culture, colors and flavors. It is the perfect medium for conversation and creating community.”
The signature tea at Cha Bei is from Australian company XO. With tea leaves sourced from Sri Lanka, China and Japan, XO takes a very innovative approach to its tea offerings, with tantalising varieties including: Autumn Strudel, a leafy black tea blended with cinnamon, apple and vanilla; and Akacia with a blend of rooibos with lemongrass, ginger and orange, just to name a few.
And despite its name, don’t think that Cha Bei is just about tea. There is also a great selection of coffee and some very delicious cocktails as well.
