Popular mochi and matcha eatery Third Culture Bakery is opening a new Inner Sunset location to go along with their Berkeley and Walnut Creek locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. This expansion comes as a result of an uptick in business at the other two locations as people continue to enjoy their mochi creations. If you are in or plan on being around the Bay Area, learn more about what Third Culture Bakery has to offer.
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What Is Mochi?
Mochi is a Japanese dessert that is round in shape and traditionally made from rice flour. Mochi is often filled with ingredients such as red bean paste, strawberries, peanut butter and even ice cream. However, the creative individuals at Third Culture Bakery took the traditional side of mochi up a notch by creating mochi muffins and baked mochi donuts.
What Is Matcha?
Matcha is powdered green tea and consumed either hot or iced. With a slightly earthy and sweet grassy flavor, matcha is the perfect drink to have to pair with a sweet mochi muffin or donut. Matcha is also rich in antioxidants and may provide certain benefits to the cardiovascular system.
What Is Third Culture Bakery?
This bakery gets its namesake from the term “third-culture kid,” or a child who spent a large amount of time growing up in a different culture from their parents. Because of this, third-culture kids generally have a lot of exposure to two or more different cultures, and they may bring this influence to the foods they cook and items they bake. Customers can see this at Third Culture Bakery with the East Asian-inspired pastries and beverages they serve.
Community Engagement
Many local businesses give back to their communities, and Third Culture Bakery is certainly no different. For example, the owners of the bakery donate a portion of their profits to organizations such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and 1951 Coffee Company. After seeing an increase in violence toward Asian Americans after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Third Culture Bakery’s owners provided safety equipment such as pepper spray and personal safety alarms to members of this community. To date, they’ve distributed over 20,000 of these safety kits for communities in need.
Muffins and Matcha
The Original Mochi Muffin, Third Culture’s signature item, blends Southeast Asian and American cultures in its ingredients. For example, the rice flour used in the muffin is grown in California, and the muffin also contains butter that is similar to what people use in France, with coconut sugars from Indonesia.
In addition to enjoying muffins and matcha at one of the three locations, people can also find their baked goods at a variety of other food establishments. Business owners looking to bring delicious and unique food to their establishments can inquire about Third Culture’s wholesale program.
If this sounds delicious and you are in the area, check out Third Culture Bakery’s new location at 549 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA.