WSU Students Open New Restaurant

PULLMAN – Authentic bubble tea and chinese food is what motivated five WSU students to open a new restaurant in Pullman.

“We’re not just authentic, we’re more like real that’s why we chose the name RealiTea,”  said Feiyan Zhong, RealiTea general manager and owner.

Feiyan says RealiTea uses actual tea leaves and real milk instead of powdered milk to make their bubble tea.

“We homemake our boba, our sea salt cream, basically everything we can make homemade, we do that,” said Zhong.

Feiyan says the restaurants’ authenticity is what she believes sets RealiTea apart from other chinese restaurants.

“It’s not something that we just buy from other people, and sell it to you guys,” said Zhong. “It’s more like we are using our full hearts to making those foods to deliver a service to you guys.”

I asked Popo’s, another restaurant who also sells bubble tea and chinese food if their products were authentic.

 “We don’t disclose this information to the public, but they are handcrafted,” said a Popo’s worker.

On top of opening the restaurant, Feiyan and her business partners are also full time students. Feiyan recalls staying up until five in the morning during their opening process.

“If you chose to do something, then no matter what it takes, you have to do it,” she said.  

Smoothies are being added to the menu this week and Feiyan says they are in the process of adding more items to the menu. She says they hope business goes well and would like to expand by this time next year to another state.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The video was aired on a previous broadcast.