Junia Cafe

Matcha Grey, hojicha, and a rotating pour over

Order a Matcha Grey and the shape of this Gardena counter becomes obvious: equal parts matcha and oat milk, Earl Grey-steeped cream, and finely ground black tea leaves over the top. It is the signature, and it is more composed than a standard matcha latte. Both the matcha and the hojicha come from Archives of Us in Chinatown.

The tea list keeps going in the same direction. Cherry tonic hojicha puts tonic water, homemade cherry syrup and toasted green tea together for something close to a Cherry Coke with far less caffeine, and the jasmine matcha latte adds agave and jasmine cordial for a floral green-tea drink. Coffee runs alongside rather than underneath: rotating single-origin pour overs change roughly every two weeks, and espresso is built from generally fruit-forward coffees bought from Hydrangea in Berkeley, Flower Child in Oakland, Ilse in Connecticut and locally based Moim Coffee. This is a multi-roaster shop, not an in-house roastery.

A working neighbourhood room in the South Bay

Junia is casual, busy and neighbourhood-oriented, used through much of the day by students, teachers and local workers. The room is clean, well lit and spacious enough for laptops or a break-time meetup, with free Wi-Fi and space to spread out, and lingering over one table for a long session is normal rather than tolerated.

That work-friendly rhythm is a large part of the appeal, and it sits inside a wider story: Gardena’s growing Korean-owned specialty coffee scene, which Junia belongs to as a neighbourhood café rather than a destination. The married couple behind it ran an earlier Los Angeles coffee shop before opening here, which shows in how settled the counter feels.

Start with Matcha Grey, then the case

For a first visit, Matcha Grey: matcha, oat milk, Earl Grey cream and powdered black tea, in that order of prominence. For something tea-forward but brighter, the cherry tonic hojicha does the toasted-green-tea and cherry combination well, and the jasmine matcha latte is the softer, more floral choice of the three.

Coffee drinkers should ask what is on the rotating single-origin pour over, or take an espresso drink built from the fruit-forward beans the shop buys. Pastries come from Out of Thin Air, with the apple danish and the cardamom bun the two named standouts and sweet and savoury croissants filling out the case. The most useful order is one layered tea drink, one rotating coffee, and something from the pastry case.