Toronto's popular Cold Tea bar pivots to deliver Christmas trees

Dec 8 2020, 5:38 pm

Small businesses are among some of the hardest hit economically from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s resulted in many getting creative on adapting to the challenging circumstances.

One such business is Cold Tea, the Kensington market bar, which recently closed their original location — they still have their Queen Tree location — adapted with the times by launching a seasonal venture called COLD T(REE).

The new business is delivering fresh-cut white spruce trees, five to 11 feet tall, sourced from a small independent farmer in Ontario.

COLD T(REE) plans to offer contactless delivery every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas. Trees and are cut on-site according to the client’s size requirements.

Order by Thursday at midnight and the tree will be delivered the day after it was cut.

 

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A post shared by Cold Tea (@coldteabar)

In addition, they’ve partnered with Marc Thuet of petite Thuet bakery to offer a package that includes a half dozen Christmas cookies, a seasonal cocktail kit for two from Cold Tea Queen Street, a Christmas music mix by Toronto DJ Mike roc. A donation from every purchase will go to the Change for a Hundred initiative. It aims to help donate grocery gift cards to families experiencing food insecurity this holiday season.

The price for all this is $125, including delivery within the GTA.

On November 23, Cold Tea closed its Kensington location.

“We knew our lease was expiring at the end of 2020 and struggled with the landlords over the last 18 months to solidify a new one,” said the bar in an Instagram post.

“Unfortunately, even after being a solid tenant for 10 years, and amidst COVID, they refused to be reasoned with. This is a tough pill for us to swallow, and we fought hard.”

With Toronto’s current lockdown measures, the closure is more than solidified; however, the crew is relocating operations to their 1186 Queen Street West location.

“We have moved all our operations over to our Queen Street location and look forward to continuing to work with a landlord who appreciates our efforts and sees what we are trying to accomplish,” stated the post.

Clarrie FeinsteinClarrie Feinstein

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