NYC Tea Shop With $500,000 Monthly Sales Renamed ‘?’ After Spat

A hot new string of New York tea shops has begun operating as “? Tea” thanks to a legal dispute with its China-based parent.

Several New York outposts of Molly Tea, best known for floral milk teas, went nameless after a judge earlier this week ordered them to stop using the company’s trademarks. The move, which created a brouhaha among its passionate local following, comes after the chain’s Shenzhen-based parent filed a lawsuit alleging that the store owners were operating outside of its agreed licensing agreement.

A “? Tea” location in Brooklyn on June 12.

Photographer: Erinn Gardner/Bloomberg

Molly Tea, whose name comes phonetically from the Mandarin pronunciation of jasmine, first ...