Tea Leaves became a farmable crop in Run a Restaurant with the Coffee Shop update, which added the Barista Station and a line of to-go drinks alongside it. The leaves come from a single new crop, the Tea Plant, and they feed the tea and matcha drinks your barista serves at the counter.
Quick answer: Reach Farming Level 61, then buy the Tea Plant from the Farming tab in the Shop and plant it on your farm plots like any other crop. Harvested Tea Plants yield Tea Leaves.
Tea Plant requirements in Run a Restaurant
The Tea Plant is gated behind Farming skill progression, not cash. Until you hit the level, the crop stays visible but locked in the Shop, so there is no way to buy or trade for it early.
| Unlock | Requirement | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Tea Plant | Farming Lv. 61 | Grows Tea Leaves |
| Coffee Machine | Farming Lv. 57 | Brews coffee drinks |
Because the Coffee Machine arrives four Farming levels earlier, most players will have the appliance running well before the first Tea Leaves are in the ground. That is normal — the machine handles the coffee side of the menu while the crop covers the leaf-based drinks.
How to buy and plant the Tea Plant
At max Farming level, the Wide Scythe perk extends a scythe swing to 12 crops instead of 8, which speeds up clearing a full tea field in one pass.
What Tea Leaves are used for
Tea Leaves are the ingredient behind the tea and matcha side of the Barista Station menu. The station serves six drinks in total, and the leaf-based ones are the reason to keep a tea patch running.
- Hot Tea
- Matcha
- Matcha Latte
The remaining drinks — Black Coffee, Iced Latte, and Pumpkin Spice Latte — do not depend on your farm’s tea supply. The Barista Station levels up as it serves customers, unlocking one new drink per level, so the tea and matcha recipes only become relevant once the station has climbed far enough to offer them.
Barista customers are a separate to-go queue. They never take a seat and do not count toward your customer cap, so ramping up drink sales does not eat into your dining room throughput.
How to confirm the Tea Plant unlocked
The check is quick. Open the Shop, switch to the Farming tab, and look at the Tea Plant entry. When the Farming Lv. 61 label is gone and the crop can be purchased, the unlock has gone through and the seed is available to plant.
From there, the loop is the same as the rest of your farm. Plant, wait out the growth timer, harvest with a scythe, and the Tea Leaves land in your inventory ready for the barista counter. If your Barista Station has not yet unlocked Hot Tea or Matcha, keep serving drinks to level the station while your first crop matures — by the time the leaves are ready, the recipes usually are too.
