The strawberry matcha latte from Ondo Coffee Co.
(Shelby Moore / For the Times)
15 over-the-top coffee and matcha drinks to try in L.A.
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In a coffee city like Los Angeles, it’s no surprise that many coffee shops, teahouses and cafes take creativity to the next level. The sweet syrups and aesthetic latte art that marked our entry into customizable coffee culture were only the beginning — springboards for today’s caffeine scene where different flavors of fluffy cream tops and unique toppings, from sugar rims to cob-shaped corn ice cream, draw crowds to shops across the city.
Here, dramatic drinks take inspiration from a wealth of cultures and cuisines, from East Asian cafes and bubble tea shops where add-ons are the star to third-wave coffee shops highlighting flavors from around the world.
“We wanted something on the menu that was kind of a destination drink,” said Max Rand, the owner of Good Friend, a coffee shop that opened in East Hollywood last year. “That’s become a really popular thing in L.A. especially: something that people will go out of their way for, will drive across town for. It has to be interesting enough for someone to go out of their way to try it.”
Extravagant drinks aren’t always a hit. If there are too many add-ons, the delicately bitter flavor of matcha disappears. Adding whipped cream and other flourishes can muddle the tasting notes that coffee roasters work so hard to highlight. Finding the sweet spot is difficult.
Achieving that balance — high-quality ingredients and processes complemented by unique flavors and presentation — is what makes a baroque beverage a winner. From coffee infused with yuzu to milky mango topped with matcha mousse, these are our favorite over-the-top drinks that taste just as good as they look.
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Chocolate Forest at Damo
Koreatown Teahouse $
(Lauren Ng / Los Angeles Times)
Surrounded by Korean barbershops, grocery stores and spas in an unassuming Koreatown strip mall, Damo has been drawing customers from all over with its Einspänner drinks and aesthetic desserts since it opened in late 2022. Like many Korean cafes in L.A., Damo has an entire Einspänner section on its menu, with drinks like cold brew topped with vanilla bean cream and strawberry milk with fresh strawberry chunks and strawberry cream, and even offers four different cream top flavors — classic, hojicha, strawberry and chocolate — as add-ons for any drink.
That last option, chocolate, is the defining feature and best part of Damo’s Chocolate Forest drink. As a matcha purist, I didn’t expect to enjoy a matcha latte topped with a cream so luscious and chocolatey it might as well be chocolate pudding — but Damo somehow manages to balance the cream’s sweetness with the matcha’s bitter grassiness. Enjoy your drink with the mugwort rice cake waffle, served with, of course, a side of cream.
That last option, chocolate, is the defining feature and best part of Damo’s Chocolate Forest drink. As a matcha purist, I didn’t expect to enjoy a matcha latte topped with a cream so luscious and chocolatey it might as well be chocolate pudding — but Damo somehow manages to balance the cream’s sweetness with the matcha’s bitter grassiness. Enjoy your drink with the mugwort rice cake waffle, served with, of course, a side of cream.
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Earth latte at Elorea
Koreatown Shop
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Aroma is a large factor in flavor. Almost no one is more familiar with this than Elorea, a Korean fragrance company that operates a combination perfumery and coffee shop. Make your way to the penthouse of Koreatown’s 1920s-era Chapman Court building, then head to the cafe’s counter to find straightforward matcha and espresso drinks as well as a range of specialty concoctions inspired by some of the company’s most popular scents.
Each drink comes with a paper scent blotter that corresponds to the fragrance. In coffee form, the Earth scent takes the shape of a classic mocha, but here it’s made with misugaru, espresso, ginger, vanilla, milk and dark chocolate. Then it’s smoked with wood under a glass cloche to mirror the woody and warm notes found in the Earth eau de parfum. At Elorea, alternate between sipping and smelling for maximum effect.
Each drink comes with a paper scent blotter that corresponds to the fragrance. In coffee form, the Earth scent takes the shape of a classic mocha, but here it’s made with misugaru, espresso, ginger, vanilla, milk and dark chocolate. Then it’s smoked with wood under a glass cloche to mirror the woody and warm notes found in the Earth eau de parfum. At Elorea, alternate between sipping and smelling for maximum effect.
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Matcha Typhoon Slush at Formosa Aroma
Alhambra Boba Tea $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The signature drinks at Formosa Aroma range from a Dalgona coffee ube coconut latte to pink guava Yakult green tea and uji matcha “limenade.” Each drink is a thoughtful, perfectly balanced concoction of milk, tea, fresh fruit and ice. The tea selection alone is something to celebrate, with around 20 varieties including a fermented chrysanthemum pu-erh. And like most of the newer boba tea shops around town, the list of mix-ins is long and tempting, with the option to turn my beverage into a four-course meal of black sesame panna cotta, black sweet rice, taro balls and crème brûlée. The matcha typhoon slush needs no adornment (though sesame panna cotta is never a bad idea). It’s a drink that resembles the tropical cyclone it’s named for, with a beautiful swirl of green matcha, milk, evaporated milk and sea-salt cheese foam. There’s a sprinkle of matcha powder over the top. When you plunge in the straw, it’s thick like a milkshake, with the layers of foam, tea and ice merging to form a luxurious slush.
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Corn cream latte at Gong Gan
Silver Lake Cafe
The pastel-hued mugs and wavy glass tumblers are practically overflowing with waffle-garnished cream tops, meringue-adorned affogato and skewers of rice cakes. At Silver Lake’s Gong Gan, an offshoot of New York City’s Korean cafe and wine bar of the same name, baroque concoctions are the colorful, whimsical draw.
The pale-blue setting, mismatched furniture and over-the-top drink aesthetics have made this a destination for photo-happy guests and influencers, but the bevy of beverages also has substance, creatively weaving in black sesame, Korean melon, persimmon and soybean powder. My favorite on the menu is the corn cream latte, where espresso mingles with corn milk on ice, with the summery, sweet and vegetal flavor not so much offsetting but augmenting the coffee.
Gong Gan’s team wanted to make something comforting and nostalgic when riffing on corn, an ingredient frequently found in Korean cuisine. The latte comes topped with a thick layer of house-made corn cream, which is then topped with chewy corn crumble that’s baked in-house. It’s a sweet-savory latte that feels part drink, part snack.
The pale-blue setting, mismatched furniture and over-the-top drink aesthetics have made this a destination for photo-happy guests and influencers, but the bevy of beverages also has substance, creatively weaving in black sesame, Korean melon, persimmon and soybean powder. My favorite on the menu is the corn cream latte, where espresso mingles with corn milk on ice, with the summery, sweet and vegetal flavor not so much offsetting but augmenting the coffee.
Gong Gan’s team wanted to make something comforting and nostalgic when riffing on corn, an ingredient frequently found in Korean cuisine. The latte comes topped with a thick layer of house-made corn cream, which is then topped with chewy corn crumble that’s baked in-house. It’s a sweet-savory latte that feels part drink, part snack.
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Peanut butter and jelly latte at Good Friend Coffee
East Hollywood Coffee Shop
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Max Rand was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when inspiration struck. The owner of Good Friend, a new coffee shop along the border of East Hollywood, Silver Lake and Virgil Village, had been searching for a signature drink — and then he realized he was holding the answer in his hands. Rand tested around 10 iterations of his peanut butter and jelly latte before landing on what is now his cafe’s most popular drink: Blueberry puree sits at the bottom of each cup, topped with the milk of the guest’s choice and then a blend of espresso and house-made peanut butter syrup. Whether served hot or cold, the finishing touch is a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Sweet, salty, fruity and earthy, this latte is nostalgic and the star of Good Friend’s “Fun Little Drinks” side of the menu — which Rand said he’s expanding in the coming months.
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Soosoo matcha latte at Harucake
Koreatown Desserts $$
(Lauren Ng / Los Angeles Times)
Ellie You began baking out of her home in 2019. When she opened Harucake in 2023, it went viral on TikTok within days for its cute, minimalist, “not too sweet” cakes. In the last year, however, the Koreatown pastry shop has become even more known for its picture-perfect beverages. The same craftsmanship and fresh ingredients used to make pastries at Harucake are also present in its drinks — take the Soosoo latte, Harucake’s most famous item. House-made corn milk and corn cream make up the bulk of the beverage, with customers’ choice of coffee, hojicha or matcha. Opt for the latter, which provides a bitter yet not too strong contrast to the sweet nuttiness of the corn cream and milk. The latte is topped with Harucake’s signature corn ice cream, which contains fresh kernels of corn and is made to resemble a small corn on the cob. For something with a savory kick, try Harucake’s other signature drink, the nuroong latte, with housemade nurungji cream and a topping of crunchy rice.
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Matcha Chata at Hilltop Coffee + Kitchen
Inglewood Coffee Breakfast/Brunch
(Jakob N. Layman)
The daytime cafe from partners Yonnie Hagos, Ajay Relan and Issa Rae now has four outposts across L.A. (with additional locations in View Park-Windsor Hills, downtown L.A. and Eagle Rock), where you can pair a productive day of remote work with Ethiopian drip coffee, beignets or a hefty breakfast burrito. The Matcha Chata — an iced matcha latte that recalls an horchata with oat milk, honey, vanilla and swirls of cinnamon — is one of the coffee shop’s most popular drinks, and it’s easy to see why. Ceremonial-grade matcha imparts a subtle sharpness that balances out the sweet and creamy components. The drink offers just enough caffeine to keep you alert without getting jittery.
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Cloudy (With a Chance of Peanuts) at Kumquat Coffee
Highland Park Coffee
(Betty Hallock)
Peanut and coffee might not be the most obvious pairing, but in Kumquat’s signature drink, Cloudy (With a Chance of Peanuts), the two belong together like Sánchez and Bezos. Similar to the Einspänner, a.k.a. cream-top coffee, the Nutty Cloud is a drink popularized in Korean cafes, with distinct layers of cold milk, peanut butter foam and espresso. A.J. Kim and Scott Sohn opened Kumquat in Highland Park in 2018 to showcase independent roasters from around the world, and fans subscribe to their emails to keep up on the latest drops. Among imaginative drinks such as a Tennessee iced latte with sorghum syrup and smoked salt, their version of the Nutty Cloud is a study in texture, temperatures and the balance between sweet and savory, creativity and control. The peanut flavor is subtle enough to avoid overwhelming the nuances of the coffee. Look for other seasonal specials, such as this summer’s coffee soda and melon soda floats.
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The Mango in Tokyo at Motto Tea Cafe
Pasadena Boba Tea $$
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
The Motto Tea Cafe in Old Pasadena is a wonderland of dessert and boba. The display case in the front is filled with crepe cakes a dozen layers tall, slices of Basque cheesecake and rolls cakes filled with custards and creams. There are plates of puffy, Japanese soufflé pancakes on nearly every table, both inside and on the spacious patio. The drink menu is just as elaborate, with fruit and milk teas in a dizzying array of flavors and combinations. The Mango in Tokyo offers a new adventure with each sip, the beverage built in tiers of fresh mango puree, slightly sweetened milk and rich matcha mousse. The mango intense and tropical, the milk just sweet enough, and the matcha smooth and grassy. I like to add a layer of matcha mochi to incorporate an additional chewy texture to the mix. You could stir the drink together, but I love the surprise of each sip.
For a drink that really feels like an indulgent dessert, the Farmers Tea is a milk tea with matcha mousse crowned with a generous handful of Oreo crumbles. Use your boba straw to crush some of the cookies into the drink. Nibble a few off the top. Treating yourself is encouraged.
For a drink that really feels like an indulgent dessert, the Farmers Tea is a milk tea with matcha mousse crowned with a generous handful of Oreo crumbles. Use your boba straw to crush some of the cookies into the drink. Nibble a few off the top. Treating yourself is encouraged.
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Salted cream matcha ube at Nam Coffee
East Hollywood Vietnamese Coffee $
(Lauren Ng / Los Angeles Times)
The salted cream matcha ube latte from East Hollywood’s Nam Coffee shop, owned by Vince Nguyen, who hails from Vietnam, imparts a salty, almost savory flavor. The star of the latte is the cream top, which is made with whole milk, salt, sugar and cream cheese, and takes after cà phê muối, the popular Vietnamese coffee topped with salted cream. Complemented by a drizzle of sweet ube syrup, the saltiness of the cream brings out the matcha’s grassy flavor. The shop, which sources its coffee beans from Vietnam, serves a variety of classic Vietnamese coffees, including egg coffee, or cà phê trứng, topped with a luscious egg custard, along with newer creations like sweet pandan coffee.
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Guinness butterscotch cream latte at Ondo Coffee Co.
East Hollywood Coffee $
(Shelby Moore / For the Times)
Ondo opened on Heliotrope Drive in East Hollywood last year with a serious pour-over and espresso menu, each coffee selected by co-owner Bryan Choi from roasters around the world. That means some intriguing beans, which he buys in small amounts and rotates often: Glitch in Tokyo, Datura in Paris, Swerl in Falkenberg, Sweden, were recently among the list of about a dozen at a time. So the lavish, creative (often cream-topped) drinks are kind of surprising. “Some people want to spend time in a cafe but aren’t necessarily big on this kind of coffee,” Choi said, referring to what he calls the Slow Bar menu of single-origin coffee. “We saw demand explode when we branched out to iced lattes and matcha lattes.” But these aren’t too-sweet concoctions with too-hyped ingredients. Choi homed in on “what tastes good, what looks good and has a creative direction. We’re not flashy in our presentation. Everything has to be good and to serve a purpose.”
The Guinness butterscotch cream latte is its bestseller, a grown-up drink (Choi points out that he’s 40 now, after all) with “butter beer vibes,” one customer noted. Guinness (the nonalcoholic version — Guinness 0.0) is infused in the cream topping and the butterscotch sauce, which is made with browned butter, sugar and heavy cream. It’s rich, creamy and caffeinated but not cloying, to go with Ondo’s “low-key mindset.”
The Guinness butterscotch cream latte is its bestseller, a grown-up drink (Choi points out that he’s 40 now, after all) with “butter beer vibes,” one customer noted. Guinness (the nonalcoholic version — Guinness 0.0) is infused in the cream topping and the butterscotch sauce, which is made with browned butter, sugar and heavy cream. It’s rich, creamy and caffeinated but not cloying, to go with Ondo’s “low-key mindset.”
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Blueberry cold foam matcha at Verve
Downtown L.A. Coffee Shop
(Jeni Afuso / Verve Coffee)
Matcha lattes likely originated at West Coast cafes (some attribute a Vancouver teahouse in particular), and then somebody (maybe at a California boba shop) came up with the idea to add strawberries to the mix. Purists might scoff at milk in their matcha, not to mention strawberry puree. But for the rest of us, the combination works — at least if it’s concocted properly — so that the floral, sweet, fruity-bright strawberry synthesizes with the milkiness of the drink and complements the grassy, bitter, nutty matcha. The fruity matcha latte continues to morph. A standout entry is Verve’s welcome rendition: blueberry cold foam matcha.
A Verve manager in Santa Cruz, Carrie Swain, worked with the coffee company’s drink development team to come up with the flavor profile — a layer of matcha and milk mixed together, poured over ice and topped with half-and-half and heavy cream blended with house-made blueberry syrup. The seasonal drink, available through summer, is garnished spectacularly, with edible flowers and a dusting of technicolor-pink freeze-dried dragonfruit powder.
A Verve manager in Santa Cruz, Carrie Swain, worked with the coffee company’s drink development team to come up with the flavor profile — a layer of matcha and milk mixed together, poured over ice and topped with half-and-half and heavy cream blended with house-made blueberry syrup. The seasonal drink, available through summer, is garnished spectacularly, with edible flowers and a dusting of technicolor-pink freeze-dried dragonfruit powder.
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Clarified yuzu coffee at Wynd Coffee & Art Gallery
East Hollywood Coffee Shop
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
One of the city’s most thoughtful new coffee shops devotes a lot of attention to single-origin sourcing and pour precision, but that doesn’t mean that Wynd Coffee & Art Gallery isn’t also having fun. At the new cafe and art space bordering East Hollywood, Virgil Village and Silver Lake, co-owner Marcelo Kim serves tres leches lattes and clarified yuzu iced coffee alongside ceremonial-grade matcha and eight to 12 varieties of coffee beans.
“Our menu is inspired by the multicultural journey that has shaped my life,” said Kim. “I was born in South America to Asian parents and raised mostly in the U.S., and each drink on our menu is a reflection of a cultural blend.”
In the clarified yuzu coffee the punchy, bright citrus bursts through the bold, full taste of rich-roasted beans. Kim leans on the centuries-old technique required of making clarified cocktails, but washes and clarifies coffee instead to create a smoother, more mellifluous balance between the yuzu and the beans. Each batch takes roughly eight hours to make, and you can taste it — there’s a lot of care here, in addition to a lot of flavor.
“Our menu is inspired by the multicultural journey that has shaped my life,” said Kim. “I was born in South America to Asian parents and raised mostly in the U.S., and each drink on our menu is a reflection of a cultural blend.”
In the clarified yuzu coffee the punchy, bright citrus bursts through the bold, full taste of rich-roasted beans. Kim leans on the centuries-old technique required of making clarified cocktails, but washes and clarifies coffee instead to create a smoother, more mellifluous balance between the yuzu and the beans. Each batch takes roughly eight hours to make, and you can taste it — there’s a lot of care here, in addition to a lot of flavor.
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Evil Eye at Yala Coffee
Studio City Middle Eastern Coffee $
(Shelby Moore / For the Times)
Don’t let Yala Coffee’s minimalist decor fool you — this Middle Eastern coffee spot packs a punch into every signature drink on the menu. Drawing long lines out the door of its Studio City shop, Yala aims to put a modern, L.A. spin on the coffee that co-founder Zain Shammas, born to Iraqi and Iraqi Armenian immigrant parents, grew up drinking.
“We have our modern approach with the cardamom cream top and the [sugar] rim on the Evil Eye,” said Marissa Shammas, Yala co-founder and Zain’s wife. “But we also have hopes that anybody that comes in that wants to bring their parents, they [can] have [the coffee] the way that [Zain’s] mom makes it.”
Yala’s “Evil Eye” drink is both a technical feat and an L.A. coffee fanatic’s Instagram dream. A 4-ounce shot of the shop’s signature sand coffee — brewed in a a Turkish coffee pot and heated on a bed of sand — resembles an evil eye symbol with a topping of a fluffy, floral cardamom cream, a pea-sized scoop of coffee grounds and a rim of honey and crunchy raw brown sugar.
“We have our modern approach with the cardamom cream top and the [sugar] rim on the Evil Eye,” said Marissa Shammas, Yala co-founder and Zain’s wife. “But we also have hopes that anybody that comes in that wants to bring their parents, they [can] have [the coffee] the way that [Zain’s] mom makes it.”
Yala’s “Evil Eye” drink is both a technical feat and an L.A. coffee fanatic’s Instagram dream. A 4-ounce shot of the shop’s signature sand coffee — brewed in a a Turkish coffee pot and heated on a bed of sand — resembles an evil eye symbol with a topping of a fluffy, floral cardamom cream, a pea-sized scoop of coffee grounds and a rim of honey and crunchy raw brown sugar.
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Ube buttercream latte at Yeems Coffee
Gardena Coffee $
(Lauren Ng / Los Angeles Times)
Given that your entire drink will turn bright purple after a few stirs, the ube buttercream latte at Yeems Coffee might look like a sugar bomb at first glance. But the $7 beverage, a signature at the Koreatown coffee shop whose second location opened in Gardena this year, is surprisingly well balanced and not too sweet. Yeems uses condensed milk to make the buttercream luscious and sweet, but the ube syrup’s naturally nutty flavor is a harmonious, and not overpowering, addition to strong espresso. Pair your drink with a snack from Yeems’ large selection of sweet and savory pastries, such as the matcha date ginger scone or one of the sourdough toasts topped with prosciutto or lox.
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