Organization
Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice
Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice is a sugarcane juice bar in Long Beach, California, started by Johnny Chhom in June 2020. Sugarcane juice is a cold drink popular in Cambodia, and Chhom set out to share that part of his culture with Long Beach.[1][2] When it opened, the Long Beach Post called it the first sugarcane juice business in the city.[1]
History
Chhom lost his office job early in the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020 he began pressing sugarcane juice at his apartment and selling it, and a few months later he bought a food truck, which he parked outside Ten Mile Brewing.[1][2] He says the idea came on a visit to Cococane, a sugarcane juice shop in Orange County.[1]
Long lines at the truck led him to look for a shop.[3] He took over the former H Salt Fish & Chips in the Bixby Plaza strip mall on Atlantic Avenue, a space of about 1,000 square feet.[1][3] He had hoped to open in the summer of 2021, but his sugarcane was held up by the backlog at the port, and for months his only sales came from a Sunday stall at Smorgasburg in Los Angeles.[1] The shop opened on Saturday, December 4, 2021.[1][3]
In December 2020 Chhom raised $2,000 toward a new playground for The Muse Academy, a Long Beach school for young children from low-income families and foster children. In January 2021 the business gave free drinks to frontline health care workers.[2][1]
Drinks
The Original is plain cane juice, pressed fresh from stalks grown in Southeast Asia and poured over ice.[2] At the shop's opening there were 14 drinks to choose from. The drink most people ordered, Chhom said, was the Coconut Cane, made with Thai coconuts that he opens by hand.[1] Other flavors layer the juice with fruit or other ingredients, among them calamansi, pandan, dragon fruit and passion fruit. The Mamba Lemonade, purple on top from butterfly pea flower tea, is a tribute to Kobe Bryant.[2][3] The shop added a milk bar that uses coconut creamer, in flavors such as strawberry, matcha and pandan, and Chhom describes the business as entirely vegan and plant-based.[3]
In 2025 the shop also sold Cambodian street food from The Golden Skewer, another business Chhom owns.[4]
Visiting
Sweet Grass is at 3545 Atlantic Ave. in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach. In 2026 its website lists it as open every day, 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Long Beach Post, Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice to open first brick-and-mortar juice bar in Long Beach (November 2021)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Signal Tribune, Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice to open storefront in Bixby Knolls (February 2021)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Signal Tribune, Bixby Knolls welcomes Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice (December 2021)
- ↑ What Now Los Angeles, Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice Opening in Carson (January 2025)
- ↑ Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice, official website (2026)