Best Boy Electric

Tea gets whisked by hand at Best Boy Electric, a coffee and tea cafe at the base of the New People building in San Francisco's Japantown. The list is short and deliberate rather than sprawling: Japanese-inspired lattes, a few coffee options and a small pastry case. The names to know are matcha latte, hojicha, black sesame latte, Okinawan latte and fresh green tea.

Tea-leaning drinks lead the programme

Coffee and tea both appear, but the character comes from the tea side and from how it is prepared. Matcha and green tea are whisked to order rather than poured from a dispenser, which gives them a more deliberate feel than a standard cafe pour.

The black sesame latte runs nutty and toasty with the sweetness kept in check, and the matcha latte takes well to oat milk. Hojicha is the roasted-tea alternative for anyone who finds matcha too grassy, and the Okinawan latte rounds out the Japanese-inspired signatures. Coffee is there for those who want it, but the shop is at its most distinctive when the order starts with tea.

Tall windows and a low voice

The room is quiet and peaceful, which is much of the point given how busy the rest of Japantown gets. Seating sits under tall windows that pull warm light across the tables, and the effect is closer to a neighborhood sitting room than a transit counter. Regulars treat it as somewhere to stay rather than a stop on the way somewhere else.

Service runs from the counter, with pickup orders handled through the cafe's own links, so nothing about it is table-service formal. Staff are generous with guidance on what to drink. Wi-Fi is free and the tables suit a working session. Dogs are welcome too, with treats and water at the door.

Order the black sesame latte first

Start with the black sesame latte on a first visit. It is the drink that explains the shop fastest: nutty, toasty and restrained on sugar in a way most sesame drinks are not. The matcha latte is the other anchor, and worth taking with oat milk.

Choose hojicha when roasted tea sounds better than matcha, or the Okinawan latte for the third of the Japanese-inspired signatures. Fresh green tea suits the quieter end of the menu, without milk or sweetening. Pair whichever you pick with something from the case: Mahleb cake, or a Third Culture mochi muffin. Artisan pastries and gluten-free options are usually on hand, which makes a black sesame latte with a mochi muffin the cleanest first order.