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For Bay Area native Jessica Gee, Junbi Matcha & Tea was love at first sip.
“I first tried Junbi maybe two or three years ago in SoCal,” she said. “Most of the matcha you see in (the Bay Area) are mainly lattes. It’s very milk-based and creamy. What Junbi does differently is offer fruit-based matcha drinks, so it’s lighter and more refreshing.”
Now, she’s bringing the Southern California-based matcha franchise to Mountain View, with an expected opening in mid-April. Junbi – created in 2017 by two couples, June Quan and Dan Tran, and Annabelle Wang and Jeremy Tu – specializes in fruit-forward matcha cold brew, matcha soft serve and a variety of tea drinks. It has nine locations nationwide, with eight more coming soon, according to its website.
Gee, a Cupertino resident with a background in biotech and a passion for matcha, said Junbi will be her debut as both a business owner and working in the food and beverage industry.
“My goal is to introduce matcha to people that are not familiar with matcha,” Gee said. “I feel like with Junbi’s cold brew method and introducing fruits to it, it makes it more palatable and accessible, more of like a fruit tea drink than the more craft lattes we’re familiar with.”
Junbi’s cold brew matcha is made with water and matcha, versus matcha lattes made with milk and matcha, and fruit purees in flavors such as blueberry, guava, mango, strawberry and yuzu dragon fruit can be added for additional flavor. An optional shot of milk, including dairy alternatives like oat, organic soy and organic coconut, can be added if desired, as well as toppings such as boba, almond jelly, aloe and more.
Gee hopes to introduce both pear and peach puree to her menu – pear because it’s one of her favorite fruits and peach because it was the drink that made her fall in love with Junbi before it was discontinued.
Junbi also offers matcha lattes in flavors including taro vanilla, rose water and even dirty, made with a double shot of Junbi’s proprietary coffee blend. In addition to matcha, Junbi offers hojicha drinks, milk teas, fruit teas, noncaffeinated teas and a small coffee menu. All drinks are available iced or hot.
Food options include made-to-order rice bowls with pickled eggplant, seaweed salad, yellow daikon, seaweed sheets, unagi sauce, housemade garlic butter mayo, nori furikake and your choice of snow crab, salmon or Tsukudani kelp. A variety of rice balls and soft serve sundaes are also available, including the guava guantlet, made with your choice of matcha, vanilla or swirl soft serve, guava puree, lychee, coconut chips and a dusting of matcha.
The name Junbi, meaning “preparation” in Japanese,” is a nod to the preparation required to create Junbi’s drinks – from vetting Japanese farms to milling the matcha. Junbi uses hand-picked and stone-milled Japanese matcha.
“A lot of the new brands are machine-milled, and it just loses a lot of the flavor,” Gee said. “Junbi’s matcha comes from a 100-year old farm that stone-mills, ensuring that each particle is of uniform size… I’ve tried a lot of matchas, and I still stand by Junbi being the best one.”
Matcha packets and tins will be available for purchase at the cafe, as well as glass bowls, electric and bamboo whisks, and other merchandise for matcha lovers. The Mountain View location will seat about 20 and will feature neutral wood tones, gray concrete and pops of yellow.
Gee looks forward to hosting community events and pop-ups at her cafe, as well as hopefully converting some coffee drinks to matcha drinkers, she said.
“I just want people to come by and give matcha a try,” she said. “It’s like coffee without the crash.”
Junbi is the latest in a string of cafes specializing in matcha to arrive in the nearby area, with Matcha Cafe Maiko opening in Santa Clara in early 2023, Izumi Matcha opening in Cupertino in late 2023 and Maruwu Seicha opening in Palo Alto in October. Mountain View has recently seen an increase in new cafe concepts, with Sana’a Cafe opening in February on Castro Street and Kona Island Coffee planning to open later this year at The Village at San Antonio Center.
Junbi Matcha & Tea, 450 San Antonio Road, Ste K, Mountain View; Instagram: @junbimountainview. Opening mid-April.
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