Terms of Use

1. Agreement

These Terms of Use (“Terms”) are a contract between you and QTea's Cha (also referred to as QTeaCake) for use of qteascha.com and related pages, tools, and emails (the “Service”).

By using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the site.

2. What the Service is

QTea's Cha currently offers:

• A curated directory and map of loose-leaf tea shops.
• Filters, distance sorting, and optional browser geolocation.
• Educational writing about tea and teaware.
• Forms to join a waitlist, contact us, or suggest a shop.
• An optional AI tea-recommendation tool.
• An order page that may list products sold by other companies, sometimes with affiliate links.

We may add, change, or remove features. The Service is provided for personal, non-commercial use unless we agree otherwise in writing (for example, a shop that wants to be listed).

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you are under 18, you may use it only with a parent or guardian’s permission. You may not use the Service if you are not allowed to under U.S. or Indiana law.

4. Accounts

Most visitors never create an account. Staff, reviewers, and business dashboard users may receive a login. If you have one:

• Keep the password to yourself.
• You are responsible for activity under that login.
• Tell us if you think it was misused.
• We may suspend access if these Terms are broken.

If we later offer public accounts (saved shops, profiles, reviews), the same rules will apply, and we will update these Terms before that launch.

5. Shop listings and the map

Listings are provided as a discovery aid. They are not a franchise, a certification, a health inspection, or a guarantee that a shop is open, accurately described, or a good fit for you.

• Shops are independent. We do not own them, employ their staff, or control their prices, hours, or tea.
• Addresses, hours, offerings, and “ethical” or similar tags can be wrong or out of date. Confirm with the shop before you travel.
• A pin on the map is not an endorsement. Removal from the map is not a statement that a business did something wrong.
• “Praise,” confirmations, or similar counts, if shown, must reflect real visitor actions or our own notes. We do not invent testimonials.
• Names, logos, and photos of shops remain those shops’ property. We use publicly available business information to help people find them.

If you are a shop owner and want a correction or removal, use the contact form.

6. Your submissions

Waitlist signups, messages, shop suggestions, praise taps, tags, and any other content you send (“Submissions”) are voluntary.

You agree that:

• You have the right to send what you send.
• Shop suggestions may be edited, verified, delayed, or declined. We do not have to publish them.
• You give QTea's Cha a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use Submissions to operate, improve, and promote the Service (for example, adding a suggested shop to the map). We will not sell your email list.
• Do not send unlawful, defamatory, infringing, or deceptive content, or anyone else’s personal information without permission.

If we later let visitors upload photos or written reviews, those will be Submissions too. We may remove them at any time.

7. AI recommendations

The optional “tea sommelier” uses a third-party AI model. Output can be inaccurate. It is not medical, nutritional, or legal advice, and it is not a crisis or self-harm service. Do not rely on it as the only reason to buy, brew, or visit. Our Privacy Policy explains what text is sent to the provider.

8. Affiliate links and third-party sites

Some links on the Order tea page — and elsewhere if we label them — are affiliate links. If you click through and buy, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

• We do not handle your checkout, shipping, returns, or payment. That merchant’s terms and privacy policy apply.
• Product names, prices, and stock can change. We are not the seller.
• A featured product is not a promise it is the best tea in the world. It is something we are willing to point you toward.

Links to Google Maps, shop websites, or social pages are provided for convenience. We are not responsible for third-party sites.

9. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law or infringe anyone’s rights.
• Scrape, bulk-copy, or republish the directory in a way that substitutes for the Service, or overload the map and forms.
• Probe, scan, or reverse engineer the site except as allowed by law.
• Submit false shops, fake praise, or misleading reviews — including using bots to inflate counts.
• Harvest emails from the Service or send spam through our forms.
• Use the AI tool to generate harmful, abusive, or unrelated content.
• Frame the site, impersonate QTea's Cha, or suggest we certify a shop or product unless we have said so in writing.

We may refuse, rate-limit, or block access if we believe these rules are being broken.

10. Our content and your license to use the site

The site design, writing, Chammy mascot, selection and arrangement of the directory, and our original graphics are owned by QTea's Cha or used with permission. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable license to access the Service for personal use.

You may not copy the directory as a competing dataset, reuse the mascot or logo as your own, or scrape content for a commercial model or app without our written permission.

If you believe something on the site infringes your copyright, send a notice through the contact form with: your contact information, the work you own, the URL of the material, and a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized. That is how we will handle DMCA-style notices if visitor uploads are ever enabled.

11. Disclaimers

Tea education on this site is general information, not medical or professional advice. Tea and herbal products can interact with medicines and are not appropriate for everyone. Ask a qualified professional about your own health.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that listings are complete, that the map will be error-free, or that the site will be uninterrupted.

Some states do not allow certain warranty disclaimers. In those states, the disclaimer applies only to the extent allowed.

12. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, QTEA'S CHA AND ITS OPERATORS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR TRAVEL COSTS, ARISING OUT OF THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50). If you have never paid us, (B) applies.

These limits do not apply to liability that Indiana law does not allow us to limit, including (where applicable) liability for our own willful misconduct.

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from claims, damages, and reasonable legal fees arising from your Submissions, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or of someone else’s rights, except to the extent caused by our own willful misconduct.

13. Paid features, subscriptions, and cancellation

We do not currently charge for the Service. There is no paid membership, no auto-renewing subscription, and no in-site checkout.

If we introduce paid features later, we will show the price, what you get, the billing period, and how to cancel before you pay. We will not make cancellation harder than signup. Auto-renew, if any, will include the reminders and easy-cancel steps required by FTC “click to cancel” rules and by Indiana and other state auto-renewal laws. Those details will be added to these Terms (or a separate checkout screen you accept) before anyone is billed.

Until that day, anyone asking you to “subscribe to QTea's Cha” and enter a card is not us.

14. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Indiana, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that U.S. federal law governs intellectual-property and other federal claims.

You and we agree to try to resolve a dispute informally first, starting with a message through the contact form. If that fails, courts located in Allen County, Indiana (or the federal court whose district includes Fort Wayne) will have exclusive jurisdiction, unless applicable consumer law gives you the right to sue in your home county.

If a court finds a part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. We may update or waive a provision in writing; a waiver of one breach is not a waiver of the next. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them if the project changes hands.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service changes. The effective date at the top will change. For material changes, we will post the new Terms on this page. If you keep using the Service after that, you accept the new Terms. If you do not agree, stop using the site.

16. Contact

Questions about these Terms: contact form. We operate from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States.

Related: Privacy Policy.