Most mornings, Yazmine Vargas-Root and Tyler Root can be found whipping up matcha behand the counter of their business, Matcharía, on South Street. It’s been open since December of 2024 — but until a few weeks ago, it was called Matchacita.
One morning in September, Vargas-Root and Root received a cease-and-desist letter from a café in Chicago named Matcha Cita. The café, which also sells the popular green tea matcha as its signature product, gave the couple a specific amount of time to change their business’ name or face legal action. Vargas-Root said it was disheartening.
“It had a lot of meaning to me, and so being forced to change it kind of really — yeah it just broke my heart,” Vargas-Root said…