Home Brewed Bar - Coffee, Tea, Boba — Restaurant in Pasadena

"Welcome home!"

"What? Oh. Oh, I get it. That's kinda weird."

My first thought, upon being greeted by the staff at HBB. And certainly not the last time I thought that, as my friend and I hung out for a bit, seeing other people come and go, being seen off with, "come home again!"

Strange, no matter how many times I heard it, but that bubbly, exuberant behavior was demonstrative of one of the awesome things about HBB: the staff here is REALLY, REALLY nice. And genuinely so! It's not often that I call out service, but it's also not every day that I just hang out for half an hour chatting with staff, especially when I really need to run.

"But what about the drinks?!," you ask! "Fantastic!," I say! While I only tried a bit of my friend's almond "milk" tea with boba, I can say that it was probably one of the best-cooked boba I've had in recent recollection - granted, I haven't ordered boba in a while, so... as for the tea itself, if you've ever tried almond tofu dessert, you'll know exactly what it tasted like.

I myself ordered one of their chocolate iced signature coffees, which was equally fabulous, and also insanely strong: so much so that my body actually was not too happy about the caffeine intake, but that's an unrelated matter. The drink itself was great, and very similar to a cold chocolate milk.

Both drinks fell a little on the sweeter side, but not unbearably so. And, a key point is that they don't use real milk: their whole thing is dairy, gluten free, so their "milk" is actually made out of palm seed, I believe, and sweetened with raw and brown sugar. Worth a try!

Accessibility Info

Venue - Seating is a bit limited, with a single regular height long table. All the others were bar counter height, which is fine for holding your drinks, but not ideal if you're there to do some work (they have outlets), or chatting with someone who isn't eye level.

Bathroom - Didn't...

Note: This review is for my experience PRE-COVID.

I try to be environmentally conscious, esp when it comes to my tea habit as it can be awful for the planet between the plastic cups, the plastic lids, the individual plastic straws wrapped in thin pieces of plastic... It's just nonstop and makes me feel extremely guilty, so when a shop offers glassware, I'm all about it. HOWEVER... Yes, there is a "But" and that is that I did not expect the bottles to be so expensive. Like crazy expensive. I bought three drinks and after- yes, AFTER- the 20% discount, it still cost me $35.54. I was sticker shocked. I also only bought two glass bottles; the other drink was a small plastic cup. It was one cost to purchase the bottle, another cost to fill it. It's not like the price is all inclusive with a drink.

I got the Peach Mango Chia iced tea w/aloe and it was really solid. My husband pretty drank the whole thing. The Ube Upside-Down Pie was so delicious, the Ube Crinkle not so much (too dry).

So even though the 32 oz glass bottles cost $10.99 each, I would've purchased them anyway even if I knew how much they cost for the sake of the planet but I most likely wouldn't have bought two of them. I don't know if Home Brewed offers glass bottles because they care about the planet or because they want to be able to make a buttload of money off them because at that price, it sure is not encouraging the consumer to make the green choice.

Loved the atmosphere, customer service was excellent (so so so nice and polite), drinks came out pretty quickly and decor was simple, modern, photographable.

Aesthetics: 4/5 Service: 5/5 Food: 4/5 Price:...

AMAZING Coffee/study spot. The -1 Star is just because of how difficult it is to find parking(metered parking is about $1.25/hour with a 2 hour limit, or nearby parking structures are about $2/hour with a $6/day maximum), and also the lack of bathrooms :(. I understand that it is a small space, and also King Taco just happens to be right next door so there ARE bathrooms nearby to use, but it's just kind of a buzz kill and totally takes you out of the zone when you are trying to get some work done or catch up with some friends.

Other than that, the drinks here are great, but what makes it truly a great coffee stop(especially after my recent 1 star reviews) is the service!

The two workers here were both super amazing. They have a great attitude, are super into the whole "Welcome Home" theme without being too in your face, and are also literally MORE than happy to help you pick a drink and explain everything to you. I just felt really comfortable coming here even though it was my fist time and I'm not the hugest coffee snob and I was also just finding somewhere to get some work done and not really looking to talk/socialize too much, but the workers here had that perfect balance of charisma that just kind of cheered up my day because they were so happy and welcoming and also let me feel comfortable that I wasn't trying to have a super long conversation and just trying to get some work done.

PRO TIP: If you really are struggling with parking, go north one block to Holly Ave, there is a parking structure there that is a little bit(or possibly the same price now) cheaper but...