{"id":88596,"date":"2026-04-03T10:25:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=88596"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:00:47","slug":"meccha-matcha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/eat\/meccha-matcha","title":{"rendered":"The popular Meccha Matcha has arrived, bringing its owners back to their uniquely Long Beach roots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just feels like home,\u201d Thorng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following in their parents\u2019 entrepreneurial footsteps, Sao and Thorng started their own business in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make them proud,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Leaving her corporate job behind, Thorng wanted to open Meccha Matcha to share her love for matcha. She was \u201ccompletely obsessed\u201d with the specially ground Japanese tea leaf from the first time she tried it, and she started exploring new, creative ways to enjoy it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sao didn\u2019t quite understand the obsession until she tried one of her sister\u2019s creations, which included things like a matcha banana pudding latte, a matcha chai latte, and a matcha espresso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are certain things where I go, \u2018Oh my gosh, this is so good.\u2019 I don’t even know how to describe what she makes,\u201d Sao said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorng\u2019s recipes make up Meccha Matcha\u2019s menu. From lattes to soft serve, they have everything matcha. One of Sao\u2019s favorites is the matcha chocolate chip cookie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matcha chocolate chip cookies at Meccha Matcha in Long Beach on March 31, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could not eat just one,\u201d Sao said. \u201cThey\u2019re amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything at Meccha Matcha is made in-house with high-quality matcha sourced from Okabe, Japan \u2014 an ingredient that\u2019s so in demand they must order it a year in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A matcha soft serve with red beans, matcha jelly, whipped cream, waffle crackers, matcha balls, strawberry sauce, and matcha cake at Meccha Matcha in Long Beach on March 31, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to cater to everyone,\u201d Thorng said. And they refuse to resort to lower-quality matcha despite a shortage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just really take everything into consideration and make that product the reason why people are still coming back,\u201d Thorng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thorng started by running the shop\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A matcha banana pudding latte at Meccha Matcha in Long Beach on Monday, March 31, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With an 11-year age gap between them, they weren\u2019t super close growing up. They\u2019ve grown a lot closer in the last few years at Meccha Matcha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore this, we rarely talked, but now we’re talking every day,\u201d Thorng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, they are looking forward to the grand opening on April 11 at 10 a.m. More details will be posted on their Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meccha Matcha is at  2310 N Bellflower Blvd #103. Their soft-opening hours are every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With high-quality matcha creations, the shop’s owners are carrying on their Cambodian family’s legacy of entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":88566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"With high-quality matcha creations, the shop's owners are carrying on their Cambodian family's legacy of entrepreneurship.","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32365],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-88596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eat","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88597,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88596\/revisions\/88597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88596"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=88596"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=88596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}