teas

Growing up in Amoy, China, Amery Chen always understood tea as a daily ritual to unwind and recharge. When she landed in L.A. for medical school, the daily tea drinking routine stayed with her and kept her alert during long nights of studying.

Now a full-time urgent care doctor who works 50-hour weeks, Chen is sharing her tradition with Angelenos at Torotea, her bustling Diamond Bar tea house that‘s expanding to its fifth location this month.

Chen takes pride in Torotea’s selection of teas imported from around the world, which are brewed in small batches and optionally paired with unique house-made toppings like a popular jelly made from barley tea.

“We’ve been able to attract people from different ages, ethnicities and genders,” Chen said. “It’s meaningful beyond words for me to be able to create something so borderless.”

In Redondo Beach, Racer Tea Bar owner Chad Webber educates customers every day on the therapeutic properties of teas he sources from around the world. Before the pandemic, Webber was living out of a 1975 Dodge van when he began experimenting with swapping his morning coffee for a London fog rendition sweetened with lavender, honey and oat milk.

It stuck — he branded his Earl Grey tea latte “The Rocker” and began driving around the country selling tea out of his van, until business boomed enough to ditch the wheels and open his brick-and-mortar in late 2021. The storefront’s heavy rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic brings an undeniably unique energy to L.A.’s tea scene.

“The locals of South Bay have responded incredibly well to it,” Webber said. “We’re busting out of the norm. This isn’t your grandma’s tea shop.”

If you’re looking to explore beyond L.A.’s bountiful coffee and matcha shops, here are eight L.A. spots dedicated to milk teas and tea lattes that span a wide array of styles and cultures, from a modern Indian restaurant serving ginger and cardamom chai lattes in Culver City to a lively Argentine mate shop in Northridge.