The Brief

Summer is heating up. Need a way to quench your thirst?

Luckily, L.A. is at the center of a drinks revolution: Everywhere you look, someone is putting a fresh new spin on sips, from new school takes on coffee-based drinks to others that take cues from Indigenous roots. It's a perfect time for those looking to expand their horizons — without alcohol.

So grab your favorite reusable straw and join us!

Boba drinks (and more) at Hey Hey

At Hey Hey, Chris Kwok’s pan-Asian boba and coffee shop, the drinks are as gorgeous as their flavors, with a menu that reflects multiple influences. Starting with Hong Kong, where Kwok’s family is from, there’s the Union ($6.50), a mix of black tea and cold brew coffee. It’s inspired by a classic Hong Kong-style drink called Yuen Yeung and is added to salted black sesame cream and boba.

Then there's a Taiwanese influence, with drink toppings such as boba and other flavored jellies like lychee, and milk and fruit teas, where fresh fruit is mixed in. And Vietnam also gets a nod. Hey Hey was recommended by How To LA host Brian De Los Santos, and his favorite drink is the Cafe Seda ($6), inspired by the traditional Vietnamese iced coffee drink made with sweetened condensed milk.

At Hey Hey in Echo Park, cool off with an L.I.T., their version of the Arnold Palmer made with rose lemonade

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The Strike is a Nutella coffee frappe (ice blended) with boba, topped with chocolate drizzle, almonds, and house creme. It's so sweet and creamy that it might inspire you to break into song and dance.

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On the bolder side, we tried the Hey Hey ($7), made with black milk tea added to their house cream, warm boba, and… get ready for it… flan. The flan serves as the drink's base, which provides a layer of sweet texture, not to mention depth, making it a standout.

Looking for even more sweetness? Try the Strike ($7). Kwok modeled the drink after Starbucks’ Frappuccino. His version amps the sugar to the nth degree with a combination of a hazelnut cocoa spread (similar to Nutella) mixed with espresso.

After one sip of the thick, sweet drink, I felt I was reliving my version of that scene from The Simpsons where Bart and Milhouse overdose on sugar, prompting them to “Go crazy Broadway style.” While no musical numbers were performed on my day at Hey Hey, I was taken by the sheer creative effort of Strike and the rest of the drinks consumed that day.

Hey Hey in Cantonese means "double happiness," which is exactly what you'll experience at the cafe founded by Chris Kwok on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. The cafe specializes in cool and inventive beverages, not to mention exquisite vibes.

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Tepache and pulque at Mirate 

Tepache is a fermented beverage popular in Mexico. It is made with the rind of pineapple and piloncillo, an unrefined sugar cane. It's also become popular in the United States, where cans are sold in places like 7-11 and in restaurants such as Mirate.

Tepache’s origins go back to the pre-Columbian-era, during the time of the Aztecs. Its name comes from a word in Nahuatl (Mexico’s Aztec language), meaning “drink made from corn,” as that's what it was originally made from.

The beverage director at Mirate is Max Reis, whom I liken to the mad scientist of L.A.’s beverage world. (I covered Mirate earlier this year when I wrote about the release of their canned cocktail, Tu Compa, their take on the Paloma cocktail.)

The tepache ($6) at Mirate is a zero-waste product made from pineapple rinds fermented with piloncillo and toasted spices, including canela (Mexican cinnamon), star anise, and clove.

Enjoy a glass of pulque at Mirate this summer and toast to the gods.

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Mirate's house-made tepache, crafted from pineapple rinds, piloncillo, and an array of toasted spices

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The tepache-making process at Mirate differs from the way the beverage is typically made in Mexico. But, Ries and his team still aim to honor its traditions. The tepache does carry a trace amount of alcohol. However, it’s very low, around 0.5–2% percentage-wise, similar to another beverage Ries serves at Mirate, pulque ($8).

Pulque is made from the fermented agave plant (also known as a maguey in Mexico), similar to tequila and mezcal, whose roots also extend back to the Mesoamerican period. It's known for its cloudy milk-like color, and is a viscous liquid with a slight amount of foam on top, coming from the sap of the agave plant. Its taste contains notes of yeast and a sour flavoring. At Mirate, Reis started serving his pulque via a nitro draft, similar to cold brew coffee or some stout beers such as Guinness. Reis removes the oxygen via the nitro tap, which slows the shelf life, and accentuates the creaminess, removing some of the viscosity.

Mírate dining room creates the feeling of being inside and outside at the same time

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While customers can enjoy tepache and pulque alone, Reis mainly uses them as a base for various cocktails. He also recommends them to diners pre- and post-meal to cleanse the palette and for probiotic qualities to promote gut health and assist with digestion.

The tepache at Mirate offers a rich mouthfeel and almost briny flavoring, even with the toasted spice notes that bring a bright, fresh taste. The pulque has a smoother, lighter consistency with the slightest bit of acidity.

Kava drinks at Kavahana

Heading to the shores of Santa Monica, you’ll discover an oasis that’s a little different from most bars and coffee shops: Kavahana, Los Angeles's first kava nectar bar.

I only recently heard of kava, a beverage made from the kava plant's roots. (This is different from the Spanish sparkling wine known as cava.) The non-alcoholic beverage from the kava plant is only grown in the Pacific Islands, specifically from the volcanic island of Vanuatu. It is cold-pressed and then dried to make a powder, which is later mixed with water and turned into a beverage.

Kava nectar can be bitter in its original form, leaving a tingly taste on your tongue. But it’s known for its kavalactones, advertised to bring about euphoria and relaxation.

Hannah Wilen and partner Neil Bhatia started Kavahana to create an alternative social space that wasn’t dependent on alcohol or caffeine. Willen herself began drinking kava nectar years ago as a way to help her with anxiety and as an alternative to alcohol.

At Kavahana, the Golden Nectar drink is made with kava nectar, turmeric, fresh lemon, ginger, and sparkling water.

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Kavahana, L.A.'s first Kava nectar bar

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The Kavahana space features low lighting and a subdued island motif with a Gen Z aesthetic. Customers can also head to the adjoining patio space outback to play board games. Regular weekly programming consists of open mics, stand-up comedy, and karaoke.

The beverage menu is meant to demystify and entice anyone interested in trying kava nectar-based drinks for the first time. Wilen and Bhatia advise ordering a double or triple shot with all the drinks at Kavahana, to experience the full effect of the drinks' relaxing properties.

Patrons relax while sipping Kava nectar-based beverages at Kavahana Bar in Santa Monica.

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I tried the Beach Nectar ($13), made with kava nectar and blue spirulina (a dietary supplement from blue-green algae), mixed with house coconut foam and vanilla — think creamy cereal milk that leaves a tingle similar to a Sichuan peppercorn. I followed it with the Golden Lemon Nectar ($13), made with kava nectar, turmeric, fresh lemon juice, and sparkling water. It was effervescent and refreshing.

After a few sips, I felt a sense of calmness fall over me, almost as if I were being wrapped up tightly in my favorite blanket.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.