Spilling the tea on the new HTeaO, Leesburg’s anticipated beverage stop w/drive thru
If you’re tired of sodas loaded with high-fructose corn syrup or who-knows-what-else, a healthier, ice-cold beverage option has arrived, provided by the new HteaO has opened at 914 N. 14th St., Leesburg.
The new spot, timed perfectly to help us cool off from the summer swelter, features a drive-thru and menu featuring a long list of cold teas and hot coffee drinks. HTeaO doesn’t offer meal options, but the Leesburg location serves all-natural and sugar-free such as meat jerkeys. They have super-clean water and coffee/espresso drinks in addition to their flavored ice tea selections.
What sets them apart from other chains you might have visited? “We use reverse osmosis water,” co-owner Robin Siper explained to the Daily Commercial. “We go through several filtration systems to make sure we have the most pure water to use, and then we also use real fruit instead of syrups.”
The tea menu has more 26 sweet and unsweetened flavor choices for customers, and may include some secret menu options such as Wedding Cake, Pink Flamingo and Apple Pie.
What’s more, they don’t use processed flavorings.
“All of our teas, if you open up the tea bag, you’ll see have actual dry fruit pieces,” Robin explained. “So, every time when it brews in that hot water, it just steeps with the fruit just being infused and all of that flavor just being built. It, it’s just in the tea immediately. We’re not adding it later. And so it doesn’t have a bitter taste and all that, and then we also use pure cane sugar. That also helps instead of the synthetic or pump-like liquid-type sugar. We use pure cane that we dissolve in the water in the middle of the, in the middle of the brewing process.”
HTeaO opened 34 locations in Florida last year not counting new locations opening in Santa Rosa Beach, Tallahassee and, of course, Leesburg.
Who will be running the new spot?
The Siper/McClure family own the new franchise that’s part of growing a multi-state beverage franchise that sells their signature iced teas and coffees in more than 100 locations across the U.S..
The boots-on-the-ground operator of Leesburg’s new thirst-quencher, co-owner Robin, 31 (she’ll be 32 next month), was born and raised in Midland, Texas.
Robin’s parents Rhonda and Don McClure co-own the franchise along with her and husband, Daniel Siper, 28, who’s originally from New York. They met in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, while working for Feld, a Florida-based company that produces circus shows, monster truck spectacles, Disney on Ice and other entertainment.
The franchise offered the perfect opportunity for the couple, who have a toddler, Samuel. Oh, and congrats are in order: There’s another on the way. Robin, now a 10-weeks-expecting mom to be again, and entrepreneur exhibits a friendly, no-nonsense DIY spirit, and says she feels at home in Leesburg.
“I just knew I wanted to do my own thing,” she shared. “I’ve been that way for a while. … I ran off and joined the circus a few years ago, and then I toured (doing sales) on different shows, and then when Covid hit, it brought me here and here I am.”
Daniel had family in Florida, and they hoped to get work at Disney World when the pandemic hit.
“When COVID hit, he was just like surely Disney’s not going to close,” Robin recalled. “I can get a job there. And then Disney closed and he got another job.”
Robin would visit home and HTeoO was one of her favorite spots. “Midland was one of the company’s first standalone stores,” she shared. “Me and my family, we would all go there and just drank at HTeaO all the time.”
Family is important to Robin, and she chose both HTeaO and Leesburg for their down-to-earth atmosphere and culture.
“We loved the concept of HTeaO, and then we met the people that own the whole franchise, they were just very family-like, very Texan, and we all are very Texan,” she said of her family. “We just loved the concept from the very beginning, including the people that own the franchise.”
What do they love about their new town?
Leesburg, Robin said, gave her a good feeling.
“We were looking at Winter Garden originally because we lived closer,” Robin shared. “At the time, it was just very hard to get something going in that area. They didn’t want really want drive-thrus. So then we started, we were like, well, let’s venture out. Let’s look in the smaller towns, the small homier towns. And that’s when we came across the building in Leesburg. It was just the perfect location. It was just everything about this specific building, the traffic around it, everything just kind of was perfect.”
Robin and Daniel moved to the Groveland/Minneola area in 2020, where she could find a home for her growing family. Leesburg, she said, was ideal for her though she couldn’t find a house for them then due to the low real estate inventory.
As for the franchise, there were obstacles at first, but she persevered. The town captivated her.
More about HTeaO:Growing iced tea chain opens in North Florida
Can you order from HTeaO online?
HteaO has an app that allows you to order delivery, curbside, in-store and catering. Reward points are granted by way of “drips.” You can download it on the Apple store or Google Play.
“I adore this place,” writes Brigid Oman on Facebook. “We moved from San Antonio last year and I was so excited to see this sign driving by one day. I couldn’t believe a place I loved was moving here. Best wishes to you … I will be a regular for sure! I never deleted the app and I have 64 drips just waiting to be added to!”
Source: Daily Commercial
