Made with cheese, heavy cream and milk, the frothy concoction is frozen and blended to a smooth, fluffy consistency, and is then poured over the customer’s drink of choice. These ingredients make up a cheese float, one of Teamoji’s featured menu items.

Teamoji, newly opened on Green Street, has brought with it a unique and fresh energy to Champaign.

“The cheese float is a very popular drink in Asia,” Jerry Huang, owner of Teamoji, said. “The cheese layer is poured over the top of the drink carefully, so it will always float on top of the drink.”

For Gavin Hang, freshman in Media, he prefers the green milk tea with a cheese float.

“I love how refreshing it tastes,” Hang said. “It kind of brings me back to the motherland, because teas like that are popular in China, and I’m really glad I got to taste something authentic here in Champaign.”

The cheese float is not the only item of interest on Teamoji’s menu, they also offer fruit teas. 

Hang said those teas are made with fresh fruit like oranges, watermelons and grapefruits.

Additionally, the teas are made using real tea leaves imported from Taiwan, which creates a fresh, original and authentic taste.

“We use something called a tea extractor,” Huang said. “The tea leaves are separated into eight-gram tea bags, which are then put into the tea extractor to boil down into the tea. We use no artificial flavors or instant tea powders.”

Teamoji also has a bakery that sells an assortment of cakes and pastries, including black forest cake, matcha red bean cake, egg tarts and the newly added egg waffles.

Huang and his partners initially came up with the idea for Teamoji in February 2017, and decided to set up shop on Green Street after seeing Mashawi Grill was selling the property.

The location also has personal significance to each of the founders, as they are all 2016 alumnus of the University.

Tables and room space can be reserved for large parties or University RSO’s. Additionally, the upper floor of the building offers a large number of seats and a serene and calm environment for students to study, relax or hang out in.

“Because I studied here, I know what people want or like. So I thought I’d make a place where students feel comfortable,” Huang said.

All of the decorations and seating were done by Huang and his team, from the string art on the wall to the wire art that spells out the phrase: “Life is good, better with Teamoji.” An array of books and pages line one of the walls in an artful display.

Huang said books encourage studying, and he wanted to create that kind of working environment in his shop.

Another wall is decorated with black and white photographs Huang took during the building and construction of the tea shop. Many of his cofounders and employees are subjects in these photos.

“I put them up because I want people to know that no matter how far Teamoji goes, I will always value and appreciate my partners and those who helped make Teamoji possible,” Huang said.

The name Teamoji stems from the root words of tea and emoji.

According to Huang, the “tea” part came from tea, and “emoji” came from the idea that people are happy when they drink the beverage.

“I think that it is definitely good and has the potential to be one of the best bubble tea places on campus,” Ishaan Kansal, senior in Engineering, said.

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