Mobile tea cart Cha Bar is serving matcha, chai and more at locations around St. Louis

Try Jai Primer’s teas at The Novel Neighbor on Aug. 17

If tea is your beverage of choice, look out for Jai Primer’s mobile tea cart, Cha Bar, setting up at locations around town over the next few months. The tea pop-up’s next appearance will be at The Novel Neighbor in Webster Groves on Saturday, Aug. 17.

After moving to St. Louis from her hometown of Chicago, Primer felt her new home lacked a place to find consistently high-quality matcha. That gave her the impulse to start Cha Bar, where matcha and chai always feature prominently on her menus. “Matcha was always something I wanted to focus on, because that’s what started everything,” she said. Primer sources matcha grown in Japan’s Kyoto Prefecture, which she buys from Ippodo Tea. “It's really hard to get any better than really great Japanese matcha,” Primer said. “And then chai is kind of like everyone's favorite, right?” she added.

This weekend’s selection at The Novel Neighbor pop-up will include honey matcha lattes, vanilla matcha lattes, classic chai lattes, Thai tea, vanilla frappes and honey frappes. Previous pop-ups have featured everything from jasmine to Earl Grey, and Primer said she is trying to partner with local tea providers to keep diversifying her offerings. “The fun thing about tea is that there are so many different types, and not a lot of places in St. Louis feature tea in that way other than black tea,” she said.

Tea aside, Primer also makes the other ingredients used in Cha Bar’s drinks – syrups and jams, for example – in her commissary kitchen. Cha Bar’s menus typically also feature flavored milks for younger customers, and Primer isn’t averse to offering coffee either – in fact, she hopes to partner with local coffee companies in future to source beans.

Since launching in May, Primer has brought Cha Bar to a variety of locations around the city, including repeat appearances at Baked & Boiled Bagels in Soulard and also at The Social Goods Marketplace in Tower Grove South. She’s aiming to build up to doing three to four events a month, balancing her passion for tea with a full-time job. “We’ll see if it grows from that into something a little bit more often,” Primer said.

Cha Bar will be popping up in Webster Groves this weekend at the launch of Open Door Romance, The Novel Neighbor’s new space devoted to romance books. Primer will be at the bookstore on Saturday morning with Cha Bar from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Ice cream sandwiches from Sugarwitch will also be available.