We checked out another coffee shop in LA last weekend when I was there. I always want to explore downtown LA, but never really happened. Now that we are about to move out of LA, we are trying so hard to do as much as we can. Lesson learned! Don’t wait till the last minute!
Besides good coffee (and matcha), this coffee shop also has a very peaceful Japanese vibe and I can imagine it would be a great place to work / study!
I am always down to try new boba places, but they are often disappointing. Last weekend, I saw a long line outside this boba place called One Zo, and decided to give it a try. O-M-G, it became my new favorite place!
This boba place made their boba fresh in-house, and they come in different flavors! There are 5 flavors now, including honey, black sesame, taro, caramel and black sugar. The boba is free of preservatives and artificial coloring, which is probably why they are super tasty! One complaint I have is that they have very limited drink selection, but if you are a boba lover, you gotta try this place!
They also have other items on the menu, like shaved ice, and Kong Kong style egg waffle if that's what you prefer! Great place for sweet tooth!
Bar nine is not a bar, and there's no alcohol there, it is actually a new coffee place I found. It is definitely an interesting place to check out. It seems like it's renovated from an old factory, and you can still see the gate and stuff.
It is really spacious inside, great place to do some studying or to hang out with friends. They also seem to keep the waste to a minimum by serving their coffee in mason jars! You can actually take that with you, and use it for something else at home! What a great idea! I already have 2 mason jars at home and I actually don't know what to do with them, maybe I will just bring it with me next time I go there for coffee!
P.S. Their coffee is G-O-O-D.
This is officially my new favorite coffee place around the west side. Last week, after the dentist appointment, we were here again! It is located in Santa Monica, and they have amazing Cortado. I like stronger coffee, so I prefer Cortado, but their Cappuccino is just as good.
Coffee is certainly the most important thing in a coffee shop, but the pastries are very important as well. We usually don't eat before dentist appointment, and we were starving when we got there. I love their huckleberry donuts with maple brown butter glaze, and it comes with the donut hole as well. The huckleberry gave a little acidity to the sweetness of the glaze, and it was delicious. Oh man, I love me some caffeine and sugar in the morning. Their croissant is very good as well, look at the picture, it's so flaky! Nothing is worse than a bready croissant.
It is surprisingly hard to find a good coffee place around Westwood, a college town. There is the one and only good coffee place called Profeta on Glendon that I liked to go. This place also has very nice seating outside for the beautiful weather that we have here in LA. For those who are scared of skin cancer, they have a very nice area inside as well. Some interesting paintings inside, very modern, and you can always see college students hanging out, or studying there. Besides a good coffee, they also have a variety of pastries as well in case you are hungry!
Copa Vida, Spanish for a Cup of Life. So true!!!! A good cup of coffee in the morning definitely brings me to life! This is a coffee shop in old town Pasadena, and I just love the ambiance. It is located on a side street of the Colorado Boulevard, so it is a little quieter, but it is still close enough to the city center. This coffee shop has a huge space, and the big glass windows brought in so much sunlight to the place. I always love sitting next the windows, watching different people walking by, it is fun! Besides all the great coffee they have, they also have a lot of tea options, and they have this fancy tea machine called Alphadominche, it's like a french press machine for tea! Gotta try one of those next time!
One of my favorite tea places in LA! It is a very tiny store in Pasadena at the corner of Del Mar and Arroyo Parkway. They have a variety of tea and flavored tea, cakes and macarons, as well as different kind of baked goods.
For tea: I really like their peach tea, one of my favorites in this place.
For sweets: I really like their macarons, I like the earl grey, praline, coffee and blueberry lavender flavor.
For baked goods: Besides their signature mochi bread, one of my favorite baked goods from them is coffee cream bun! Strong flavored coffee cream in a soft bun, I just can't resist to get this every time when I go.
They also sell very good tea leaves. They offer samples for you to smell different tea leaves, and the smallest amount you can get for each tea leaves is 4 ounces. So, you can buy multiple tea leaves in small quantities. Also, they also have a variety of blooming flower tea that tastes as good as it looks!
I love cafe hunting! Whenever I go to a new city, first thing I do is to make a list of coffee shops to go! The first time I've had Blue Bottle is when I was in San Francisco, and that left a pretty strong impression. Their coffee is G-O-O-D! Starting from that time, I have been buying their beans for home coffee making too! My favorite is the Three Africans, and 17 ft ceiling is good too. I am not very good at describing coffee, but the aroma, the texture of the coffee here is just soooooo good. Strong but not bitter, and pretty smooth to your mouth. My favorite is their Cappuccino, and it's so good that no sugar is necessary. This is how I judge coffee sometimes, if I can drink it black, it's really good. For espresso drinks, if I can drink it without any sugar, it is pretty damn good.
Blue Bottle opened up a couple locations in LA, including downtown LA, Venice, Beverly Grove and Echo Park. We happened to go to the Chinese Consulate to get my *"guai lo"'s Chinese visa, which is pretty close to the one in echo park. and so this is the first visit of blue bottle in LA. By the way, it is just sooooo ridiculous, the Chinese Consulate does not take appointment, so we went there at 8am to line up, and by the time they open, which is 9am, the line is super long already. And there are a couple guys just came right before the consulate opens, and stand at the head of the line like nothing is wrong!!!!! I was so pissed!!!! This is why sometimes I am not too proud of being called a Chinese. Anyways, we were the 4th in the line, so we got it done pretty quickly.
Back to the blue bottle coffee. They also have light breakfast, like toasts with jam/poached eggs, belgium waffle, etc. Perfect for an early morning like this, especially with a barista this cute lol (pictures below).
* Guai lo in Cantonese means white foreigners, and I have decided to refer him as guai lo from now on in my blog ^^
On the way to a friend's housewarming pool party, we were in need of a coffee. And we found this little coffee shop called Bourbon Street Cafe! Very interesting decor and it is a perfect lazy weekend afternoon spot. Good coffee, good artwork, good macarons, and good ambience. I wouldn't go out of the way to this place, but if you are in the area and looking for a coffee shop to sit for a while, this would be a good choice.
Boba drinks are definitely one of the staples in LA. Who doesn't like it? It comes with so many different variations that you can almost have something different every time. Also, you can personalize it with the toppings, the level of sweetness, the amount of ice, etc.. It is the most customized drink you can have.
There are hundreds of boba places around LA, and one of my favorite places is half and half. It has more than 5 locations, and they are all located in East LA. Whenever I am in the area, got to go and get one! You can see from the picture below, there's always a long line, especially on a hot day. If you have an order more than $10, you can call and make a phone order, and when you arrive at the location, go straight to the cashier and pay (skipping the huge line!) and wait for your drink. No surprises if you are familiar with Asian food places in LA, it's cash only, so remember to bring some cash with you if you go!
They have a list of top selling drinks right next to the cashier, for those who are overwhelmed by the options, you can pick from the smaller list! For an especially hot day, they do have slush, and that might help you cool down more!
This is my thought process when I am picking what to get for the day:
First question: Do you want a milky drink or a tea drink?
Second question: Do you want black tea or green tea?
Third question: Do you want it plain or flavored?
Last question: What kind of topping do you want?
Then, a little customization, how sweet do you want it, and do you want it with less ice (if you are a slow drinker, you might not want your drink to get too diluted with the ice). I usually do half sugar because I don't like things too sweet, a hint of flavor would be enough for me. But bear in mind that the sweetness comes from the syrup, so the flavor is also diminished if you order less sweet.
Personal favorites: Honey milk green tea w/ boba, Caramel milk tea w/ boba, peach black tea w/ grass jelly, green apple green tea w/ green apple jelly, passion fruit green tea w/ aloe.
These are just my personal favorites, there are way too many other options that other people love and you might like! I would recommend trying different things!!!! I promise you I have never had a bad drink there!
Personal tips: Everything goes well with boba, milk drinks also go well with pudding, tea drinks go well with grass jelly or any kind of jelly!
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