From ube cold foam to banana turon, Filipino desserts are at the heart of Tala Matcha’s menu.
“There’s really no access to (Filipino food),” said owner Hannah Duran. “I felt that this was a really good opportunity to introduce the community to a whole new set of flavors.”
The new matcha bar is located inside the Pearl District’s Offline Tulsa Collective, which is also a vintage store. Duran plans to be there every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. after the collective’s grand opening, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 29 at 1321 E. 6th St. Hours are subject to change, and more information will be posted online.
The name “Tala” refers to the goddess of the morning and evening stars in Filipino folklore. Matcha, Japanese for powdered tea, is the perfect drink to guide your morning, says Duran. So the branding for Tala Matcha just made sense.
Duran, 26, grew up in Glenpool surrounded by Filipino culture. Over the course of several years, her dad and eight of his 12 siblings immigrated from the Philippines. Growing up, Duran shared traditional meals with nearly 30 cousins. Her hunger for new flavors developed.
About a decade ago, she says she developed a love for the green tea, but it was hard to find good matcha in Tulsa. In her search, Duran tried many different teas to understand the differences in quality, origin and taste. She never intended for a business to come from it.
Then she went to culinary school at Tulsa Tech and created a cake decorating business called Stardust. She posted the matcha drinks she made on social media.
“All my friends would be like, ‘Oh, you should open up a matcha place,’ kind of like jokingly,” she said. “For a long time, it really was this just running joke that I was gonna start a matcha business.”
Reality kicked in. Duran says she had one of the best matcha drinks she’s ever had in Vienna at a pop-up matcha bar inside of a vintage shop. “Yeah, I could do this if I wanted to,” she thought to herself.
She hosted a pop-up of her own for friends and family. By the third one, her house was full of strangers. That evolved into collaborations with local vintage shops and now the Offline Tulsa Collective.
Tala Matcha partners with Nami Matcha, an online matcha distributor. Duran used to buy powder from a small Asian-owned business in Austin. But the prices skyrocketed — going from $180 for a kilogram bag last December to $450 nearly three months later. Now she’s paying around $280 for a kilogram bag.
You can get a basic matcha for around $7.50 to $8. The ube cold foam matcha is a bestseller. Ube is a purple root vegetable commonly used in Filipino desserts. Specialty drinks are no more than $8.50, Duran says. The banana turon matcha has caramelized saba banana based on the Filipino egg roll dessert.
She wants her prices to be accessible and affordable for Tulsans.
“Asian flavors are becoming really popular right now,” Duran said. “But I think that also makes people more willing to try it.”
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
