I was on the corner of Valley Boulevard and Stoneman Avenue in Alhambra a few weeks ago when I stumbled into a new coffee shop that was not what it seemed.
As I walked into Monolith Coffee, I felt transported to a chic bar that resembled a science museum set in Japan. Rocks climbed the sides of the cafe’s high top tables, and small boulders hung from the ceiling like an art installation. “Wow,” I thought as I stood in a long line.
When I reached the front of the line, I looked over the menu and realized some of the coffee and tea could not be ordered to go — a rule I have never encountered at a coffee shop. I was intrigued.
Maybe it was the timing. It was late afternoon, and I did not want the rush of caffeine. So I asked, “I’m not really in the mood for coffee. What would you recommend?”
The barista leaned in and recommended “Still,” the shop’s take on a Japanese tea called hojicha. I raised an eyebrow, skeptical — “what the heck is hojicha?” — before trusting the recommendation.
Twelve dollars later, my first experience with hojicha left me speechless. The drink hit my tongue with the char of a roasted marshmallow, followed by a nutty aftertaste rounded out by smooth milk. It was a cozy familiarity I could not quite place, but I didn’t think too much about it. But then — well, have you ever learned a new word and suddenly started seeing it everywhere?
That’s what happened to me with hojicha. It seemed to follow me.
Following hojicha across LA
A few days later, I grabbed coffee with a neighborhood friend, Ileana Tremmel. My ears perked up when she ordered hojicha.
For Tremmel, hojicha was also a surprise. For most of her life, she had been a regular coffee drinker. Between working in biotech and raising two children, coffee was her go-to drink. But then she started getting sick.
“After going to the doctor and ruling out different foods and drinks, it turned out to be the coffee,” Tremmel told me as we sipped our hojicha lattes.
The next day, I saw the word again at Mundae Coffee in Whittier, which opened at the end of March.
A small chalkboard near the register advertised a “Banana Creme Hojicha.” It had been added to the menu just a week earlier.
“We had the hojicha [mixture] at the beginning of April, but I didn’t put it on the menu until now because of recipe testing,” co-owner Diego Chavarria told me.
It turns out, hojicha has significantly lower caffeine levels, making it suitable for children, older adults and people like Tremmel who have negative reactions to coffee and black tea.
Watching Chavarria prepare the drink feels like watching a chemistry experiment. He heated a Japanese chawan bowl twice to make sure it retained warmth before adding the hojicha mixture. Then he added hot water, milk and house-made banana puree — each measured carefully using tools that resembled laboratory glassware.
As I took my hojicha to go, I looked around the shop. I wondered whether anyone else was noticing this? A quick Yelp search and some phone calls to coffee shops all around Los Angeles County confirmed my suspicions, Hojicha was everywhere.
But it wasn’t always that way.
In the tea world, hojicha is a late bloomer.
Where did hojicha come from?
Its Cinderella-like story began with Japanese green tea.
When Buddhist monks traveled from China to Japan during the Nara period (710–794), they brought green tea with them, valuing it for its health benefits and its role in meditation.
Over the next few centuries, green tea spread from monasteries into the Japanese mainstream, reaching the royal family, appearing in literature and eventually gaining endorsement from figures such as Zen master Eisai — something like the Oprah of 13th century Japan — who encouraged its daily use.
As demand grew, production scaled up. Hand-harvesting gave way to mechanization, which also created waste: leftover leaves, stems and twigs.
According to widely shared accounts, a Kyoto tea merchant in the 1920s gathered these remnants and roasted them over charcoal. It’s unclear why he did it. Some say it reflected a broader cultural emphasis on resourcefulness and minimizing waste. In any case, the charcoal process transformed the material into something new — a less bitter, lower-caffeine tea with a smoky, earthy profile and reddish hue.
That tea became hojicha.
Where is the best place to get hojicha?
When I walked into Reinne’s Place in Long Beach a few days later, the shop was still in transition. Owner Tommy Le was unpacking boxes, organizing shelves and handling paperwork.
Le signed the lease in July 2025 to honor his late girlfriend, Reinne Lim. The two met while working as baristas. Three years ago, while Le was driving, their car was struck head-on by a drunk driver. Lim was killed, and Le was hospitalized in the ICU.
After a year of setbacks and operating as a pop-up at Open Gallery, Reinne’s Place made its long-awaited brick-and-mortar debut on May 16th. The cafe also serves one of the best hojicha drinks in Southern California.
Le said he is intentional about every drink he serves, but he has a particular appreciation for hojicha. Hojicha and matcha are often described as siblings or cousins, but Le framed the comparison differently.
“It has a classic flavor that feels very familiar but is also new and nuanced,” Le said. “Having hojicha be so similar, yet so different from matcha — that’s what makes it special.”
With summer approaching and the days growing longer, I ordered my hojicha iced.
Le’s version highlights the nuttiness of high-quality hojicha paired with the distinct flavor of Kotaji oat milk. It is a reminder that in a world where drinks like hojicha can become trends, there is still an art to making them. There’s a chemistry to it, too.
It’s also a story about how a tea born from waste nearly 100 years ago is on the verge of becoming one of the most popular drinks of summer 2026.
Below are a few places where you can try hojicha.
Stagger Coffee
Koreatown
3069 1/2 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Instagram: @staggercoffee
Damo
Koreatown
3510 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Downtown LA
1325 Palmetto St. #100, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Instagram: @damoteahousela
Dumbstruck
Koreatown
3407 W. 6th St., Suite 110, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Instagram: @dumbstruckcoffee
Reinne’s Place
Long Beach
3902 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 9081
Instagram: @reinnesplace
Trung Nguyen E-Coffee
Long Beach
5710 E. 7th St., Long Beach, CA 90803
Instagram: @trungnguyenecoffee.usa
SACHI.LA
South Bay
4574 S. Centinela Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Instagram: @sachi.la
Junia Café
South Bay
1341 W. Gardena Blvd., Ste. 101, Gardena, CA 90247
Instagram: @juniacafe
Tea Master
Downtown LA
450 E. 2nd St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Instagram: @teamaster.la
Thank You Coffee
Elysian Park
1001 N. Broadway, Suite 106, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Instagram: @thankyoucoffee.la
Kettl Tea
Los Feliz
4677 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Instagram: @kettltea
Monolith Coffee
San Gabriel Valley
43 E. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, CA 91801
Instagram: @monolithcoffeela
Mandarin Coffee Stand
San Gabriel Valley
3768 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107
Instagram: @mandarincoffeestand
Modu Cafe
Koreatown
480 S. Western Ave. #113, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Instagram: @moducafe
Mundae Coffee & Goods
Southeast LA
7701 Painter Ave., Whittier, CA 90602
Instagram: @mundaecoffee
A hojicha latte from Reinne’s Place catches the afternoon light while perched on a boulder outside the Long Beach cafe. (Megan Tan/For The LA Local) 
An iced hojicha latte from Mundae Coffee floats in a sea of star jasmine blossoms. (Megan Tan/For The LA Local) 
Trung Nguyen E-Coffee’s purple hojicha drink blends seamlessly with clusters of purple blooms on a clear day in Long Beach. (Megan Tan/For The LA Local)
