Chagee Modern Teahouse
Direct from China to multiple OC cities, this growing chain focuses squarely on teas and milk teas
“Countless” would be the first word we’d use to describe Orange County’s tea shop brands – there are certainly hundreds of OC tea places, likely more, and it’s incredibly rare for any new opening to truly stand out these days in either drink choices or quality. Yunnan, China-based and actively franchising chain Chagee has a better strategy to deal with this challenge than most rivals: It’s using smart marketing, branding, and customer service tactics to make a strong first impression in every new market it enters, while serving a small number of high-quality drinks at moderate prices.
Many Orange County residents’ first introduction to the brand may be its 2026 social media campaign with singer Laufey, who teaches people how to pronounce the chain’s tea-inspired name (Cha-jee) while hanging out with a horse – notably without trying to sell anything. Additional posts and stores alike focus as much on Chagee’s friendly employees and attractive red merch as its drinks.
At the same time, the pace and quality of Chagee’s local expansionary ambition has put even mega-franchisor Cotti Coffee to shame. New Chagee shops have been opening across Los Angeles and Orange County at a brisk pace, so the chain multiplied the impact by issuing promotional “passport” stamp cards to fans, and rewards people with free merchandise and other treats for attending multiple grand openings. The result: long lines on each opening weekend. In OC alone, Chagee’s first store (Brea Mall, November 2025) had a successful weekend-long launch, quickly followed by snaking lines for its second (Shops at Mission Viejo, February 2026); nearby Long Beach had an opening only a week later. A third OC shop is coming soon to Costa Mesa, just inside the front doors of South Coast Plaza’s Collage Culinary Experience.
While the Mission Viejo store’s interior is small, seating around a dozen people, Chagee tries to ensure the environment has positive energy. Live plants line shelves on one side of the space. At the other, guests are warmly welcomed at the entrance, told to pipe up and request fixes if anything’s less than satisfactory with drinks, and taught about Chagee’s two straws – one like a coffee stir with three holes per side, intended to aerate and prolong a drink, the other larger and made for most drinks. Most of the drinks are available either hot or iced, as well as in regular or large (+$0.50) sizes, with sugar level, ice level, and milk/oat milk options.
All that having been said, Chagee’s tea choices are remarkably limited – at least in the United States. When we visited, there were two “brewed teas” ($5 without milk, $6 with milk), starting with their most popular drink, the Boya Jasmine Green Tea, which arrived iced and shaken to a frothy top, moderately sweet by default, and strong in jasmine tea flavor despite the milk. Chagee’s other brewed tea – peach oolong – was offered alongside three “extracted teas” ($5.25 without milk, $7.45 with milk): amber oolong, roasted black tea, and Ceylon black tea. Last up was a small collection of mostly overlapping “special-teas” ($7.45 to $8.25 without milk), the first very nicely pairing jasmine green tea and lemon, the second peach oolong and lemon, and the third roasted black tea and lemon. Not quite fitting with the rest, the Chagee Daydream ($8.45) was a delicious frozen oolong milk tea slushie, compellingly drizzled with caramel and topped with whipped cream. No other items were available when we visited; coffee and pastry options appear not to be on Chagee menus anywhere in the world.
How long United States Chagee locations will focus so narrowly on the current tea selection remains to be seen. Stores outside the U.S. have three or four times as many drink choices, adding a wide range of traditional Chinese milk teas, “snow cap milk teas” with heavy whipped cream and toppings, a large array of “vitality fruit teas,” and more brewed and Teapresso extracted tea options. While we liked each of our drinks, our favorite was the Daydream, which we’d certainly order again if we were near a Chagee; the others weren’t worth going out of the way for. As such, we’ll likely wait until the U.S. menu expands for a revisit, but we liked what we ordered and the overall quality of the experience. Our recommendation is to give Chagee a try if you’re either a fan of strong tea flavors, or want to experience a top-tier milk tea and caramel slushie.
Stats
Price: $
Service: Counter
Open Since: 2017 (China), November 2025 (OC)
Address
1065 Brea Mall
Brea, CA 92821
657.822.1340
555 The Shops At Mission Viejo #218
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Instagram: @usachagee