A groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday afternoon at 405 Early Blvd for an HTeaO franchise tentatively projected to open this summer in the city of Early.

HTeaO started out in a family owned hamburger restaurant in Amarillo called Buns Over Texas. The tea sales became so popular that eventually stand alone tea stores opened across West Texas.

“There’s currently now 37 stores total. Four of those are corporately owned and the rest are all franchises,” said Hayden Hutchens, co-owner.  He added that over 300 more stores across America are under development. Hayden was joined at the groundbreaking by his wife, Jessica, and co-owners Jason and Desiree Manning and their daughter, Berkley.

In the Photo, left to right, owners of the local HTeaO franchise:  Hayden Hutchens, Jessica Hutchens, Jason Manning, Desiree Manning and daughter, Berkley Manning.

HTeaO will offer 24 flavors of sweet and unsweet ice teas. “All our sweet teas we make with pure cane sugar and all of our unsweet teas are just straight brewed broad leaf tea. We don’t add any flavor squirts or anything after the fact. It’s all infused with the tea leaves,” Hutchens said.  They also offer lemonade.

There will also be packaged chips, beef jerky and other snacks but there is no cooked food in the store. They will also sell Yeti and Pelican products. “We carry a full line of Yeti coolers and cups, Pelican coolers and cups as well, the soft coolers. It’s a really unique store. We blare Texas Country Music all day, everyday. We’re very welcoming to our customers. It’s a very fun, exciting atmosphere,” Hutchens said.

“This is huge for the City of Early. Anytime that we can open a new business and have something for the citizens of Brown County to have a choice for something new is a gold mine for us,” said Larry McConn, Assistant City Administrator and Director of Economic Development.

The company website is at this link.