for restaurant teams
the operator's toolkit
one page that turns the community's cost-of-goods and training threads into things you actually use on the floor: a margin calculator for your own tea list, a three-shift staff-training curriculum, a service-temperature reference, and a 90-day rollout checklist. everything below runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere, and every checklist prints cleanly for the pass or the office wall.
tea programme margin calculator
what would a tea list add to your P&L?
the defaults below are Sandry Law's own published numbers from cost of goods on a tea programme — a 2018 shú pǔ'ěr (熟普洱) cake running £0.31–0.39 per 5 g portion, and a single-origin lǎo cōng shuǐ xiān (老枞水仙) from Wuyi at roughly £0.90 a portion. replace every field with your own numbers before you trust the total — this is a calculator, not a claim about your restaurant.
suggested menu price / portion
—
actual cost-of-goods %
—
daily
- revenue
- —
- cost of goods
- —
- gross profit
- —
annualised
- revenue
- —
- cost of goods
- —
- gross profit
- —
fill in portions poured per day to see the maths. figures follow the thread's £ baseline — if you cost in another currency, just enter your own numbers in the same unit throughout.
read the full cost-of-goods thread → source the tea by the kilo →
three pre-shift meetings
staff training curriculum
Zhou Xiang's three-shift framework from training floor staff on Chinese tea, turned into a checklist. each box is saved in this browser only — tick as you complete a shift, or print the page.
shift 1 — the three-things rule
shift 2 — service logistics: water, ware, timer
shift 3 — describing tea without a lecture
service reference
holding temperature at the table
numeric steep parameters below are quoted directly from training floor staff on Chinese tea; vessel guidance is drawn from service temperature realities. where the threads give a principle rather than a number, we've kept it as a principle rather than invent one.
| category | water temp | first infusion | service note |
|---|---|---|---|
| lǜ chá 绿茶 — green | 80°C | 30–45 sec | never a rolling boil — the single most common floor mistake |
| huáng chá 黄茶 — yellow | 85°C | 1–2 min | loses floral delicacy fast once poured — decant off the leaf promptly |
| hóng chá 红茶 — black | 90–95°C | 10–20 sec | most forgiving of the six on timing |
| bái chá 白茶 — white | not numerically specified in the threads | — | as delicate as yellow tea — decant into a warmed chá hǎi (茶海) rather than leaving on the leaf |
| wūlóng 乌龙 — oolong | just off the boil | seconds, not minutes | best served tableside in a gaiwan so the guest controls the steep directly |
| hēi chá 黑茶 incl. pǔ'ěr 普洱 | held at 70–75°C in service | robust — tolerates a communal pot | decant into a heated glass or Yixing pitcher; never returns to the heat source |
the universal fix across every category: separate the leaves from the liquid — decant into a pre-warmed chá hǎi or remove the infuser — the moment the first infusion is ready. leaving leaf in hot water is the single change Chen Hui Yi flags most often on restaurant visits.
first 90 days
rollout checklist
a sequencing of the costing, training and temperature work above into three months — built from the same threads, not a new claim. adapt the pacing to your own kitchen.
days 1–30 — cost the list
days 31–60 — train the floor
days 61–90 — hold the standard
for restaurants and HoReCa buyers