Short and Stout Tea Company, LLC — Restaurant in Town of Guilderland

First time here. And I'm so irritated by the iPad/tipping for just grabbing some loose leaf tea. Why. It's one thing if I'm a customer on the "cafe" side. But in this case, not so — it's akin to tipping at the grocery store (utterly ridiculous if it ever came to pass!). The distinction between what's "service" and what’s just a transaction gets blurred when things like this happen.

I know that I can simply choose "No Tip." But the swiveling iPad creates an expectation/pressure on no ground at all. In what is just a transaction (i.e., there's no personal service or any extra effort on the business's part to warrant it), it feels slightly exploitative of people's goodwill. I get that running a small business is tough — so charge me what you need to make a profit (bake it into prices if you must). This isn't a complaint about prices as much as an unsavory practice. Good Lord.

ETA: Ha. Love the response. And it warrants a correction. I did a quick Google search — and FAQs from common retail POS systems, like Toast and Square, show that you can control/enable tipping on/off by device. So what you say about not having control doesn't seem to be true.

Additionally, you state that "Though not expected, a lot of our retail customers tip our staff for the service anyway." How do you know that these customers aren't doing so because they are faced with the tipping screen? Because an expectation is created? That tipping has gotten out of control is not an unpopular opinion, and I'd bet that "a lot" of the retail customers do not necessarily want to, but do so out of exhaustion/pressure. Again, a quick Google search shows a litany of complaints, especially in retail settings...

Anyway, you're a private business and can set out terms as you like... and customers are, of course, free to take their business elsewhere. So this works out nicely.

And lastly, best of luck through the next...

I visited from Boston today in the evening. I initially was drawn to Short and Stout because I saw a post on Instagram about their Thai tea cream puff. Upon walking in, I was warmly greeted by all the workers despite them being busy. I noticed the walls were lined with tins filled with all sorts of teas and S&S even has a small area with prepackaged smaller dried teas and other tea paraphernalia. There was a case by the register with a ton of goodies in them, offering both sweet and savory. I was a bit disappointed to learn they didn't have any Thai tea cream puffs since they were "seasonal" to last month (I was a bit confused about this information since I didn't see anything on their Instagram about having a monthly special. I'll just have to try my hand at making my own TT cream puff). The attending worker apologized for the absence of the cream puffs, and I opted for 6 macarons: two pistachio, one lychee-rose, one lavender, one creme brulee, and one passionfruit. All were excellent (especially the pistachio!), but my least favorite was the lavender. I normally love lavender goodies, but this specific macaron was like biting into a bath bomb. They may want to go back to the drawing board and lower the level of lavender flavouring. I also ordered two veggie spring rolls warmed and to-go (delish) and a jasmine milk tea. The cup the boba comes in is very cute. The only part of the milk tea I didn't like was the sweetener used in it. It tasted very artificial, like Splenda or Stevia.

Overall, I would come again if I'm back in the...

My friends took me to Short and Stout recently, and I was blown away by how adorable the tea house is. It’s much larger inside than I expected, and it’s clear that so much thought has gone into every detail—from the paintings on the wall to the history of tea displays, and even the cute items and teas available in the shop. There’s a cozy tea lounge and plenty of seating upstairs, where I noticed many people working as well.

What really caught my eye were the fun, creative flavors they offer! They have sundae bubble teas like pumpkin pie, banana split, cookies 'n' cream, and even fruity pebbles. I was so impressed and excited to try them. I had the coffee bubble tea, which was delicious, and the taro sundae was equally amazing.

Besides their 150 different kinds of tea (crazy, right?!), they also serve light snacks. I tried the macarons, mochi waffle, and mochi—all of which tasted great. They also have savory snacks like dumplings, which I didn’t try but looked tempting.

The staff was incredibly sweet and helpful! If you’re really into tea, they even offer workshops, which I thought was a nice touch.

This is probably my favorite bubble tea spot—it’s so cute and the variety...