Maya Moon Collective: A Cacao Café and Community Space in Normal Heights

Overview

Maya Moon Collective on Adams Avenue calls itself "Southern California's first cacao cafe and community collective."

Which raises the obvious question: what is a cacao café?

The answer, in practical terms: it's a coffee shop where the main drink isn't coffee. They serve espresso too — it's on the menu and it's fairly priced — but the thing you came for is a cup of drinking cacao, and they make eight of them.

Here's the single best thing to order, and it's the cheapest way to understand the place.

The Cacao Tasting Flight is $12 and you choose three.

Three cups, three different cacaos, side by side, for twelve dollars. Order that first. Their single origins come from three different countries — Ecuador, Peru and Mexico — and tasting them against each other is the whole argument for the café in one order.

Maya Moon was founded by Kathryn Rogers, and it grew out of her artisan cacao truffle business before it had a storefront. This is the first brick-and-mortar.

The Cacao

Pure Ceremonial Cacao — $6. Single-origin Ecuadorian, unsweetened. This is the unvarnished version, and if you want to know what cacao actually tastes like without anything done to it, this is the cup.

The drinking cacaos are $8 each, and all but one are Peruvian:

• Classic — Ecuadorian blend, sweetened with dates
• Adaptogen — Peruvian, with adaptogenic mushrooms and warming spices
• Golden — Peruvian, coconut milk and warming roots
• Mind + Body — Peruvian, coconut milk, floral and herbal
• Moon Balance — Peruvian, with hormone-balance herbs
• Aphrodisiac — Peruvian, with herbal additions
• Mexican Sol — Mexican cacao, spices and chile

And the ones that aren't ceremonial at all:

• Hot Chocolate — $6. Steamed milk and cacao syrup, and the menu says kid-friendly
• Frozen Hot Chocolate — $8
• Mexican Cacao Milkshake — $10. Spiced cacao and ice cream
• Homemade honey marshmallows — $2 to add

On sourcing, their own claim is "zero refined sugars," with the cacao organic and from South America. Their shop says purchases support organic farmers in Ecuador and Peru and local beekeepers.

They also describe cacao as a "natural cardiovascular stimulant which serves to open the heart." That's their framing, and we're reporting it as theirs — it isn't a medical claim we're making.

The Rest of the Menu

Coffee, and it's cheaper than most of Adams Avenue:

• Espresso $3 · Americano $3.50 · Cappuccino $4 · Latte $5
• Mocha $7, made with their house cacao syrup — the crossover order
• Homemade syrups $2 — rose agave, salted date caramel, maple vanilla

Tea: pot of loose-leaf $5 · seasonal herbal, hot or iced, $5 · matcha latte $6 · chai $6

The Moon Flower elixirs — all $8. These are the zero-proof cocktails, and they're the most distinctive thing on the drink list after the cacao: Moon Latte (blue lotus and lavender), Sun Latte (warming spices and mushroom), Viva La Vida (hibiscus and lime), Wayward Stardust (floral and citrus), Soul Club (rooibos, turmeric, pineapple, vanilla).

Savory food, $12–$14:

• Lox Toast $14 — vegan carrot "lox" or smoked wild salmon
• Portobello Sandwich $14 · Grassfed Steak Sandwich $14 (served cold)
• Mediterranean Toast $12 · Potato Spinach Frittata $12 · Seasonal Salad $12
• Add grassfed steak or smoked wild salmon $7
• Sourdough or gluten-free bread, your choice

They say they source seasonal produce from local farmers for the savoury menu.

Pastries, and this is where the truffle business shows:

• Famous Cacao Chip Cookie — $3. Gluten-free
• Popover $3.50 · single cacao truffle $3.50 · cranberry cacao muffin $5
• Chocolate raspberry cupcake $6 · orange almond olive oil cake $8
• Chocolate pistachio cake $12 — vegan and gluten-free

Most of the menu is marked vegan or gluten-free, which is unusually consistent for a café this small.

The Events

This is the "collective" half of the name, and it's the part most people miss.

Recurring, and free:

• Good Vibe Social — every Friday night. Their words: "Join us at Maya Moon every Friday night for our Good Vibe Social."
• Open Mic on the Patio — every fourth Sunday, 4–6 p.m. Free
• Plant Club Meetup — 9–11 a.m., listed as a "Free Community Event"
• Golden Hour Meditation — 5–6 p.m.

Ticketed or by donation:

• The Cacao Tasting Experience, 6:30–8 p.m. — the guided version of the flight
• Paint nights have run at $15 including materials
• Pop-up tarot readings have run by donation

Coming up right now:

• Wednesday, October 28 — Tarot 101 Intuitive Activation, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
• Friday, October 30 — All Hallow's Eve Party, 6–10 p.m. Free entry
• Thursday, November 5 and Wednesday, November 18 — Cacao Tasting Experience, 6:30–8 p.m.
• Sunday, November 15 — Live Painting with Viphoria, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
• Thursday, December 10 — Cacao Tasting Experience

They also run bi-monthly art installations, makers markets, moon meditations and workshops, and some events happen off-site — past ones have been held in Mission Beach, Solana Beach and Encinitas, so check the location on the listing before you drive.

Take Some Home

There's a separate online shop, and it ships.

• A 4oz cup of cacao $4 · 8oz $8 · single-serving ceremony kit $8
• Ten-serving ceremonial drinking cacao $24
• Truffles $18 a box — pumpkin spice, raspberry dark chocolate, lavender rose
• Honey marshmallows $22 · gift card $15
• Most drinking cacao tins $38 · collagen version $50
• Gift sets $48–$55 · chakra truffle box $40
• Whole cakes $60–$100 — the orange almond olive oil at $60, the vegan pistachio chocolate at $100

Shipping note worth knowing: it's chocolate. They tell you to "keep an eye on package tracking notifications so you can bring your chocolate inside," and they recommend paying for two-day shipping anywhere it'll be above 70 degrees.

How to Visit

• Address: 3349 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116 — Normal Heights
• Phone: 619-782-9055 · Email: connect@mayamoon.co
• Hours: Monday–Thursday 9 a.m.–6 p.m. · Friday–Sunday 9 a.m.–9 p.m.
• Patio — a garden patio, used for open mic and events
• No alcohol. The cocktails are explicitly zero-proof
• Online shop with shipping, plus whole dessert orders
• The building is from the 1920s, with exposed wood ceilings and murals by local artists

Good to Know

• Order the $12 flight. Three cacaos, three origins, one order — it's the best twelve dollars on Adams Avenue for understanding something new.
• Weekends run to nine, weekdays stop at six. The evening events are Friday through Sunday for a reason.
• Friday night is the social. Every week, no ticket.
• The mocha at $7 is the move if you want cacao but came in for coffee.
• It's a zero-proof bar, which makes it a genuinely good option for anyone not drinking — a category Adams Avenue is otherwise short on.
• Check the venue on event listings. Not all of them are at the café.
• The cookie is $3 and it's gluten-free, which is the cheapest thing worth ordering here.

The Takeaway

Get the tasting flight, add the famous cookie, and come back on a Friday night.

What makes Maya Moon worth the trip isn't the wellness framing — you can take or leave that — it's that someone built a café around a drink nobody else in Southern California is building a café around, priced it honestly, and then filled the calendar with free things to do in the room. The $12 flight is the whole pitch in one order.

For more spots worth knowing, browse our Local Picks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Maya Moon Collective? At 3349 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116, in Normal Heights.

What are the hours? Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Friday to Sunday, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.

What is a cacao café? A café built around drinking cacao rather than coffee. Maya Moon serves eight drinking cacaos plus a pure unsweetened ceremonial cup, with single origins from Ecuador, Peru and Mexico — and it also serves espresso drinks.

What should I order first? The Cacao Tasting Flight, $12, which lets you choose three cacaos and taste them side by side.

How much is a cup of cacao? $6 for the pure ceremonial Ecuadorian, $8 for any of the flavoured drinking cacaos, and $6 for a kid-friendly hot chocolate.

Who founded it? Kathryn Rogers, who ran an artisan cacao truffle business before opening this, her first brick-and-mortar location.

Do they serve alcohol? No. Their cocktails are explicitly "craft zero proof."

Is there food? Yes — toasts, sandwiches, a frittata and a salad at $12–$14, plus gluten-free and vegan pastries from $3.

Are there events? A lot. A free Good Vibe Social every Friday night, a free open mic every fourth Sunday from 4–6 p.m., a free Plant Club Meetup, meditations, and a ticketed Cacao Tasting Experience. Some events are held off-site.

Can I order online? Yes, there's a separate shop with cacao tins from $24, truffles at $18 and whole cakes from $60, shipped with insulated packaging.