"Too Sweet" by Hozier is one of my new favorite songs, and as soon as I took a sip of my drink, I kept singing that song in my head towards the drink until it no longer became sweet.
Sweet Grass is a sugarcane juice shop located in Bixby Plaza on the southwest corner of Atlantic and 36th. Not quite Bixby Knolls, but rather, California Heights, though I guess it's close enough that you could call it Bixby Knolls. CVS is the anchor store there, but Sweet Grass is on the opposite end of the plaza, next to Baskin Robbins.
In addition to sugarcane juice, Sweet Grass also offers milk tea and iced coffee, but one, the milk tea uses coconut milk, which I'm almost certain I don't like, and two, I thought it'd be a little silly to rate a sugarcane juice spot based solely on their iced coffee. I don't remember the last time I ever had sugarcane juice, so I was more than willing to give it a try, especially since there was a Yelp check-in offer for 15% off your purchase.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted, but it wasn't a very welcoming welcome if that made any sense. They also didn't offer to help when I was standing there trying to decide what drink to get. Not that I was expecting them to, but it would have been appreciated had they done so.
They have example cup sizes at the front counter, and the large cup, which should have been 20 oz, looked larger* than what I expected! With the 15% off, the subtotal became less than the price of the medium drink, so it was a pretty good deal! Which drink did I select? The Strawberry Sugarcane. The other flavors seemed pretty exotic, and I wasn't really in a mood to try something that fancy for my first attempt at sugarcane.
The wait for my drink was only about a minute, barely enough time for me to take a look around the interior and admire all the decor from 2Pac poetry to a couple of claw machines next to a Mortal Kombat arcade game. They also have plenty of merch, which I'm guessing is for sale, but I didn't bother to ask.
The contrast in colors from the top to the bottom of my drink fascinated me. It was red on top, but yellow-green on the bottom. Since I'm not familiar with sugarcane juice, I can't tell if that's the norm?
As soon as I took my first sip, I almost want to sing "You're too sweet for me" to the drink. It was waaayyyyyyy too sweet! Like cloyingly sweet that I'm concerned the drink alone would have exceeded my daily recommended intake of sugar. There was plenty enough ice in the drink, but if I am understanding the menu correctly, you have to pay an upcharge to get less ice: 3 quarters for a medium drink and 4 for a large. What?! Who knew such a thing even existed?
I definitely wouldn't recommend asking for less ice not just because of the upcharge, but because if you want your drink less sweet, the ice melting over time will help with that. I was planning on visiting multiple different places after that, and there was a period of time when the drink was at the "sweet" (different kind of sweet here lol) spot: not too sweet, but also not unflavored. It was also pretty warm outside, so I was pretty thankful for the large sized cup that kept me company for the entire duration of my afternoon getaway.
The drink tasted pretty good at that "sweet" spot, though I suppose the strawberry flavor had dissipated in the time it took for the melting ice to make my drink less sweet. However, I really wish my enjoyment of the drink wouldn't be represented by a concave down parabolic curve with time as the independent variable.
Service was pretty much whatever. I doubt the girls were excited to be working that afternoon, though I did see a smile from the crew member who handed me my drink.
I noticed at the front door they have a "People Love You on Yelp" letter from Yelp CEO Jeremy S. Sad to say, but I'm not one of those people. However, to each their own, and I'm sure it comes down to an acquired taste for a drink like sugarcane juice. If you've grown up drinking that stuff, you'll certainly like it better than I did. For me, it's a pass. Thanks for giving me a go at sugarcane, but it's just not my cup of tea...or juice, I should say. Hopefully my review won't rescind that prestigious honor.
* When I got home, I looked at the bottom of the cup and saw that it was a 32 oz cup that I received. I'm glad I got more than expected, though it does make me wonder if 20 of those oz were juice, and the other 12 oz was ice? read more