Meccha Matcha, the popular matcha cafe from Artesia, just soft-opened a Long Beach location, and Sitavy Thorng and Sinavy Sao, the sisters who co-own it, are excited to bring their business to the community where they grew up.
“It just feels like home,” Thorng said.
Their family arrived in Long Beach as refugees from Cambodia in 1985, reconnecting with extended family who had made it here sooner. Once in Long Beach, Throng and Sao’s parents opened a donut shop that also sold Chinese food. They worked 364 days a year, only closing on Christmas to spend time with their family.
Following in their parents’ entrepreneurial footsteps, Sao and Thorng started their own business in 2019.
“We want to make them proud,” Thorng said, who teared up describing her parents’ journey to the United States and the hard work they put in to build a life for their children.
Leaving her corporate job behind, Thorng wanted to open Meccha Matcha to share her love for matcha. She was “completely obsessed” with the specially ground Japanese tea leaf from the first time she tried it, and she started exploring new, creative ways to enjoy it.
Sao didn’t quite understand the obsession until she tried one of her sister’s creations, which included things like a matcha banana pudding latte, a matcha chai latte, and a matcha espresso.
“There are certain things where I go, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so good.’ I don’t even know how to describe what she makes,” Sao said.
Thorng’s recipes make up Meccha Matcha’s menu. From lattes to soft serve, they have everything matcha. One of Sao’s favorites is the matcha chocolate chip cookie.
“You could not eat just one,” Sao said. “They’re amazing.”
Everything at Meccha Matcha is made in-house with high-quality matcha sourced from Okabe, Japan — an ingredient that’s so in demand they must order it a year in advance.
Customers can choose between three intensity levels to shape their experience. Level one, which has 85 milligrams of caffeine, is great for those who are new to matcha. Level three has 255 milligrams of caffeine and is perfect for those who are just as obsessed with matcha as Thorng is.
“We want to cater to everyone,” Thorng said. And they refuse to resort to lower-quality matcha despite a shortage.
“We just really take everything into consideration and make that product the reason why people are still coming back,” Thorng said.
Thorng started by running the shop’s first location in Artesia by herself for half of the day, but it put a big strain on her. Now, she has a strong team of employees behind her, and the best part, she said, is working with her sister.
With an 11-year age gap between them, they weren’t super close growing up. They’ve grown a lot closer in the last few years at Meccha Matcha.
“Before this, we rarely talked, but now we’re talking every day,” Thorng said.
Together, they are looking forward to the grand opening on April 11 at 10 a.m. More details will be posted on their Instagram.
Meccha Matcha is at 2310 N Bellflower Blvd #103. Their soft-opening hours are every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.