The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is one of the oldest specialty coffee-and-tea chains in the United States, founded in 1963 in Los Angeles by Herbert Hyman. It is best known for inventing the Original Ice Blended frozen drink in 1987, for carrying a serious tea program alongside its coffee, and for a large footprint across Asia. In 2019 the brand was acquired by the Philippines-based Jollibee Foods Corporation. This is the story of where it came from, what it is known for, and how it fits among the other big global coffee names.
What is The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf?
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, often shortened to CBTL, is an American chain of coffee shops that also takes its tea seriously. The full name is a clue to the identity: this is a coffee and tea leaf business in equal measure, not a coffee shop that treats tea as an afterthought. Walk into a location and you will see espresso drinks and the famous Ice Blended frozen drinks next to a wall of loose and bagged teas organized by category.
The brand sits in the same broad space as the big international cafe chains. If you want the wider landscape, our Starbucks brand guide and Costa Coffee brand guide cover two of its best-known peers. CBTL's distinguishing feature is that the tea side has always been a real part of the business, going right back to the name on the first stores.
The history: founded 1963 in Los Angeles
Herbert Hyman started the company in September 1963 in Los Angeles, originally as a coffee service for offices. According to the brand's own heritage and widely reported accounts, the idea was sparked when Hyman and his wife Mona discovered high-quality coffee while traveling. He began importing, roasting, and selling gourmet coffee, and the first retail store opened in 1968 in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. By the 1970s the company had grown to around ten stores across Southern California and had added a range of exotic teas to the menu, which is how the "and Tea Leaf" half of the name earned its place.
That early 1960s founding date is one of the brand's proudest claims. It predates the rise of the modern American coffeehouse boom, which makes The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf one of the longest-running specialty coffee names in the country. For decades it grew steadily in Southern California before expanding well beyond it. Hyman, sometimes called the "Bean Baron" of Los Angeles, ran the company for decades and remained a recognizable figure in the specialty coffee world until his death in 2014.
The Original Ice Blended, the drink that built the brand
The single most important moment in the chain's history came in the summer of 1987. An employee at the Westwood, California store brought in a blender and mixed ice, coffee, and chocolate powder into a frozen drink, and the Original Ice Blended was born. It became a signature item and a genuine pop-culture fixture in Los Angeles. It is widely noted as a forerunner of the frozen blended coffee category that other chains, including Starbucks with its Frappuccino, later made famous.
The Ice Blended is still the heart of the menu. Popular versions include the Vanilla Ice Blended, made with the brand's French Deluxe vanilla powder, and chocolate or caramel variants like the Mocha and Caramel Ice Blended. If you enjoy frozen and iced coffee drinks generally, our explainer on types of coffee drinks walks through how blended, iced, and espresso-based drinks differ.
What the coffee and tea leaf menu is known for
The coffee and tea leaf identity shows up clearly in the menu, which is split fairly evenly between the two sides of the house.
On the coffee side
- Ice Blended drinks — the signature frozen line in coffee, mocha, vanilla, caramel, and rotating seasonal flavors, plus caffeine-free blended options.
- Espresso drinks — lattes, cappuccinos, americanos, and mochas built on the brand's espresso blend.
- Brewed and cold brew coffee — drip coffee and cold brew, served hot and iced.
On the tea side
This is where CBTL stands apart from coffee-first chains. Its teas are organized into categories such as green, black, oolong, herbal infusion, decaffeinated, flavored, and a higher "Tea Master's" tier of premium whole-leaf blends. It also sells tea lattes and blended tea drinks, so the tea side gets the same frozen-and-iced treatment the coffee does. If you are new to tea categories, our guide to the types of tea explained is a good companion, and the Camellia sinensis tea plant explainer covers why green, black, and oolong all come from one plant.
Ownership: the Jollibee acquisition
For years the brand changed hands and grew internationally. In 1996 the Hyman family sold the Asian franchise rights to brothers Victor and Sunny Sassoon, who opened the first international location in Singapore that year and pushed hard into Asia; by the late 1990s the Sassoons had taken the wider parent company global. The biggest change came in 2019, when the Philippines-based Jollibee Foods Corporation acquired The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in a deal reported at around 350 million US dollars. The purchase was completed in September 2019.
The acquisition fit Jollibee's strategy of building a global restaurant portfolio, with a particular focus on accelerating CBTL's growth in Asia, where Jollibee already operated other food and coffee brands. Today the chain operates well over a thousand stores across roughly two dozen countries, with a notably strong presence across Asia in addition to its US home base. Because it is a franchise-heavy business, store counts and the exact list of countries shift over time.
How it compares to other global coffee chains
The table below puts The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf next to a few peers on the points readers most often ask about. These are factual comparison notes, not endorsements.
| Brand | Founded | Origin | Best known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf | 1963 | Los Angeles, USA | Original Ice Blended; serious tea range |
| Starbucks | 1971 | Seattle, USA | Espresso drinks; Frappuccino; global scale |
| Costa Coffee | 1971 | London, UK | European cafe chain; espresso roasts |
| Dunkin' | 1950 | Massachusetts, USA | Coffee and donuts; iced coffee |
Compared with Dunkin', which leans toward fast, everyday coffee, CBTL positions itself as a specialty cafe with a strong frozen-drink heritage and a real tea menu. Against Starbucks, the closest comparison is the frozen blended category, where CBTL's Ice Blended arrived earlier. The brand's deep Asia footprint also sets it apart from chains that are more US- or Europe-centric. One thing to keep in mind across all of these names: prices, sizes, and exact drink lineups vary widely by country and by the individual franchisee, so the best source for what something costs is always the local menu rather than any single global figure.
What to order if you are new to it
If you have never been, the Original Ice Blended in either coffee or mocha is the most representative thing on the menu and the drink the brand is genuinely famous for. Tea drinkers should look at the categorized tea wall and ask which blends sit in the premium tier. For something between the two, the tea lattes and the iced tea-based blended drinks show off the "tea leaf" half of the name that many rival chains simply do not have.
Note on regional variations
Because The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf operates across many countries, the exact menu, drink names, and tea selection vary by market. Local franchises adapt offerings to regional tastes, so a seasonal Ice Blended in one country may not appear in another. Availability differs widely by country and retailer, so it is always best to check the local menu. For a deeper regional view, see our Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf regional guide.
The takeaway
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is a genuine piece of coffee history: a 1963 Los Angeles original that helped pioneer the frozen blended coffee drink, built a real tea program, grew across Asia, and now sits within Jollibee's global portfolio. Whether you remember it for a Vanilla Ice Blended or for its wall of loose-leaf teas, it earns its place among the world's notable cafe brands. To keep exploring, browse our wider coffee hub or read up on more coffee chains and roasters.