Tasty Chef Ingredients and Storage

Every milk tea ticket in Tasty Chef is a walk through storage. Cups, tea, milk, ice, and toppings only exist if a crate still has a count. This page is the warehouse manual: where crates belong, what Stock Alert is telling you, how Restock Supplies should be numbered, and which ingredients you should even enable. Pair it with kitchen layout for walking distance and the menu planner so you do not stock six toppings you never toggle on.

Steam published the free demo on 5 September 2026 as a Milk Tea Shop slice. Learn this wall in that shop. Bakery ovens and sushi fish crates are preview until those pins read Current Shop on Tasty Town.

How storage sits in the hub

From an idle floor, Ingredients is a right-column button next to Layout, Equipment, and Menu. Open it between shifts. During service, you do not browse a catalogue; you watch Stock Alert and the crate counts on the warehouse wall. Official shots show coconut counts, lemon crates, ice, bottled extras, and pastry-like boxes even in the tea shop. High-use crates hug the matching machine. Low-use crates sit on a back wall with a passing lane so a restocker does not cut the brew line.

Stock Alert is not a broken ticket. It is a crate that went thin while someone was still brewing. Finish the cup in your hands, then walk the wall — unless an employee already has Restock Supplies at priority 1. Taking a half-filled Matcha Milk Tea on a warehouse sprint is how you spoil both the drink and the restock.

Crates that match the four drinks

Set Menu in the demo toggles four drinks. Storage has to match that board, not a fantasy bakery.

• Milk Tea — black tea plus milk. Tea crates and milk belong beside the Black Tea Brewer and Milk Dispenser.
• Matcha Milk Tea — matcha plus milk. Matcha sits with the Matcha Tea Brewer. Sharing milk with the black tea line is fine if the dispenser is on the walking sentence.
• Lemon Black Tea — tea plus lemon, no milk. Lemon crates are a special walk. If lemon is a hike, turn the drink off until the crate moves.
• Coconut Milk — coconut plus milk. Coconut is the crate people strand in a corner. Either park it on the Coconut Milk station or disable the drink.

Ice is Off or Custom. Custom ice needs an ice crate at the pass, not in the dining room. Toppings shown: Boba, Jelly, Red Bean, Coconut Jelly, Chia Seeds, Pudding, cap 0–3. Each topping you enable is another crate or bin that can flash Stock Alert. A cap of 1 with two toppings on is kinder than a cap of 3 with six bins. Rank the drinks on the recipes page.

Restock Supplies is a duty, not a vibe

Animal staff can hold up to three numbered duties. Restock Supplies moves ingredients from warehouse shelves to kitchen stations. If Make & Serve Drinks is 1 and Restock is unset, coconut dies mid-rush while a beaver keeps walking to an empty dispenser. Typical early setups:

• You restock; one NPC greets (Take Orders 1).
• Two NPCs: greeter, plus a drink maker with Restock as 2.
• After alerts repeat: give someone Restock as 1 and park crates on a clear wall.

Recall a restocker who lives on the brew island. Hire details live on hiring staff. Role ranks live on the staff list.

Placement rules that save gold

1. High-use crates (tea, milk, ice) within one or two tiles of the matching machine.
2. Lemon and coconut only if those drinks are on. Hidden crates for off drinks waste walking.
3. A back-wall line, not a crate maze in the dining room. Customers and tickets need the aisle.
4. One passing tile if you play co-op or keep a restocker NPC.
5. Do not buy a tenth brewer before you can see every crate count without spinning the camera. Comfort tags on accessibility help; they do not teleport milk.

Build Mode still uses Grid (G) and Equipment Info (H). Store All is for machines you regret, not a way to hide empty boxes. After you move a crate, play five tickets before you move another. The kitchen flow planner is the paper version of this wall.

Gold, Town Bank, and the crate you actually need

Town Bank converts shop gold and town funds. It does not spawn milk. Style Boutique outfits do not spawn boba. Spend on cups and crate proximity before cosmetics — the gold economy order still wins. A daily wage on a restocker is rent on that body; if the shop prints less than the bench, Recall someone instead of buying another lemon crate you will not walk to.

What not to stock yet

Official sushi Build Mode shows Fish Processing, Shrimp Peeling, a Rice Cooker, and a Conveyor Belt. Official bakery shots show ovens. Those crates are not your demo homework. Copying a fish box into the tea shop is a decoration that blocks the aisle. When a pin flips to Current Shop, rebuild storage for that kit using equipment instead of stretching tea habits onto rice.

A ten-ticket storage drill

Enable Milk Tea and Matcha only. Ice Custom. Toppings cap 1. Place tea, milk, and ice on the line. Hide lemon and coconut or turn those drinks off. Hire nobody. Serve ten tickets. If Stock Alert never fires, your wall is honest. If it fires, you walked too far, not too little staff. Then hire one Restock Supplies body and serve ten more. That is the warehouse tutorial the demo actually teaches.

Demo limits: demo and playtest. First purchases: milk tea shop. If Steam adds a crate type to this shop, we edit this page the same day we notice.