Since opening Honey Bee Tea in 2022, owners Hai Tang and Moon Duong have capitalized on the popularity of boba tea, expanding to five locations across the St. Louis metro area.
Now, the husband-and-wife team is poised to build on that success with Vietnamese phin drip coffee and ceremonial-grade Japanese matcha tea at Honey Coffee & Matcha (13 Brentwood Promenade) in Brentwood.
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Here’s what to expect when the new café opens in mid-June.
The Team
Tang and Duong developed the concept for Honey Bee Tea while traveling throughout Asia and southern California. They noticed how popular boba tea shops had become worldwide and decided to bring a premium version to St. Louis, with ingredients imported from Taiwan.
Honey Bee Tea now offers dozens of combinations of fruit and milk teas, including the signature Okinawa Milk Tea with Toasted Creme Brulée. Customers can also choose smoothies and slushes, lattes, probiotic yogurt drinks, Vietnamese coffee, and Japanese matcha tea drinks along with Hong Kong egg waffles.
On recent trips, Tang and Duong paid attention to the emerging popularity of Vietnamese coffee and Japanese matcha. Similar to how they had approaching bringing the boba tea concept to St. Louis, they did their research, participating in trainings and experimenting in-house to develop their signature beverage recipes.
Along the way, Tang learned just how passionate their future clientele would be. “I didn’t realize how much people love coffee,” he marvels.
Neither Tang nor Duong had a background in the restaurant industry before creating Honey Bee Tea; Tang was a real estate investor and Duong owned and operated a spa. But the couple had a shared passion, a strong pull toward entrepreneurship, and an innate sense of hospitality—including Duong’s habit of calling everyone “Honey,” which led to the shared name of their tea shops, as well as their Honey Nail Lounge & Spa in Chesterfield and their new café in Brentwood.
The Menu
Tang and Duong are sourcing the highest-quality matcha available for their drinks. Ceremonial matcha is selected from the youngest shade-grown tea leaves, which have an especially vibrant emerald color and a delicate umami sweetness.
Matcha is touted for offering a naturally smooth, refined flavor and for delivering calm, focused energy without jitters. Tang says customers who are already familiar with matcha will notice subtleties with the ceremonial-grade matcha, such as a lack of bitterness. “Once people start drinking ours, they will be able to tell the difference,” he promises.
Matcha, the only type of tea beverage in which the full leaf is consumed, is reported to have health benefits like higher concentrations of antioxidants and L-theanine. To preserve the flavor and the nutritional potency, the leaves served at Honey Coffee & Matcha are handled within strict standards. After production in Japan, the matcha is transported quickly, under carefully controlled, cool, dark conditions, arriving within approximately one day.
Likewise, the premium Arabica and Robusta coffee beans are carefully selected from Vietnam, Brazil, and other renowned coffee-growing regions around the world. The coffee is brewed using a phin filter, a simple device through which water drips slowly, picking up a rich amount of flavor, somewhere between espresso and hand drip coffee.
Specialties will include egg coffee, a hot or iced brew topped with a sweet, custard-like foam traditionally made of egg yolks whipped with sugar and condensed milk, resulting in a creamy flavor. On the matcha side of the menu, look for the Matcha Einspänner, tea served over creamy oat milk and finished with a dollop of sweet cream, or flavored matcha drinks such as strawberry.
Customers will be able to choose their preferred level of sweetener—a nod to another trend that Tang and Duong have recently noticed. “People are looking for healthier drinks that are not loaded with sugar,” Tang says.
That said, the menu will also include refreshers and dirty soda options, which Tang expects to be especially popular with children.
Instead of offering an extensive food menu, Tang says, “we want to focus on what we do best, which is beverages.” The café will, however, offer taiyaki, a fish-shaped pastry with a crispy exterior, which can be eaten plain or with a variety of fillings. For a sweet treat, it will serve bingsu, a milk-based Korean version of shaved ice.
The Atmosphere
Tang and Duong chose the Brentwood Promenade location, because it’s a central neighborhood with plenty of traffic and a diverse population. The café will have seating for 20, and Tang expects a brisk to-go business as well.
The décor is minimalist and modern, featuring light-colored walls and fixtures designed to feel welcoming and bright. Customers familiar with Honey Bee Tea may notice similarities in the vibe, something Tang and Duong have worked hard to infuse into all their businesses.
“We enjoy working,” Tang says, “and we get pleasure and enjoyment out of being on a successful business journey.” But when it’s time to unwind, they look for the same calm, meditative ambiance they have infused into all their establishments.
Watch for details about the soft opening (planned for mid-June) on Honey Coffee & Matcha’s Facebook and Instagram feeds.
Honey Coffee & Matcha
13 Brentwood Promenade Court, Brentwood
314-386-1523
7 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily
