Not your usual cup of tea

MANILA, Philippines - Whether you like your tea hot, iced, sweet, sugar-free, with milk, with fruits (the list goes on…), Teacup Café makes sure to have all your possible tea cravings covered through its extensive lineup of tea-based beverage concoctions. As an avid tea drinker, Teacup Café’s Emily Castillo admits that it actually took them quite some time to perfect their signature drinks, which fall under five categories: Iced Fruittea, Iced Milk Lattea, Iced Yogurttea, Iced Teaccino, and Hot Tea.

Best Quality = Best Taste

Given their own discriminating taste when it comes to food, and, of course, to their favorite tea drinks, Emily and her sister and Teacup Café co-owner, Evelyn Lao, are both extra-conscious of what they serve in their new business venture. While Evelyn is in charge of all the food options that they serve at the café, Emily shares that as the one in charge of the drinks, she researched heavily on the different kinds of tea available and which ones would provide the best taste — and health benefits for their customers. Qualities that she and Evelyn also personally look for in the food that they order whenever they dine out. As a result, Teacup Café serves up drinks that are deliciously refreshing and won’t make you palpitate, unlike some tea drinks made from cheaper types of tea. There are two types of teas used for Teacup’s tea-based specialties: Ceylon black tea from Sri Lanka and Japanese green tea.

Aside from checking out different suppliers, Emily had different people — even those residing in places where tea is a popular drink of choice, like Hong Kong — to taste their tea and see how their products would fare with future customers. Thankfully, their efforts at trying to come up with the best-tasting and healthy tea-based drinks drew a great response.

And so Teacup Café opened a couple of months ago and now enjoys a loyal, steadily growing clientele that ranges from families and groups of friends to the working set mostly from the Banawe area.

The Teacup Café Selection

Tiewm for noodles: Yakisoba is a popular snack at Teacup Cafe

With so much variety being offered, Emily shares the current bestsellers and house specialties that Teacup first timers may want to try. For the Iced Fruittea (fruit flavored tea with jelly) there are 12 flavors to choose from but some clear favorites are the Blueberry Blast (a big hit with kids, according to Emily), Green Apple Peach Royale, and Mango Tango.

For those who want their tea with some milk, there are also 12 flavors for Teacup’s Iced Milk Lattea, with the Teacup “Nai Cha” Jelly and the Macadamia Nut Lattea as the top flavors. Emily highly recommends their black tea for the Teacup “Nai Cha” Jelly as it is better suited for this classic drink.

 Teacup Café has its Iced Teaccino, which comes in six yummy flavors like Strawberries and Cream, Vanilla Caramel, and the bestselling Iced Matcha Green Teaccino.

As Teacup Café aims to always give its customers the best options for their favorite beverage, Emily has also come up with the yummy but healthy Iced Yogurttea range, aside from the classic Hot Tea that has become a favorite among the more health-conscious, older set. For the Iced Yogurttea, Emily highly recommends the Berry Healthy and the Matcha Green, which are also good for digestion.

More Than Teas

Teacup Café is also gaining a following for its selection of Japanese-inspired dishes and snacks that Evelyn enthusiastically whips up. It’s not surprising that she continues to come up with her own special take on popular Japanese dishes and snacks. So whether you’re feeling famished or you want something light, there’s definitely a lot to choose from.

A great ending: Waffleyaki is waffle balls ala mode drizzled with syrup.

Popular dishes and snacks include the chicken teriyaki, chicken curry (chicken cubes with Japanese curry sauce), katsudon, katsukare (fried breaded pork with curry sauce), gyudon, ebidon (shrimp with onion and egg), yaki udon, yaki soba, pasta clams in olive oil (popular with kids), Japanese carbonara, takoyaki, yakitori (choice of grilled chicken, pork, and beef), fried siomai and sushi cakes. One of the most unique items in Teacup Café, the sushi cakes come in five variants and is a big hit among sushi-loving folks. Currently, Evelyn is busy coming up with dessert treats like the delectable Waffleyaki (waffle balls ala mode drizzled with syrup).

After receiving a lot of franchising inquiries they will start offering Teacup Café franchising soon.

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Teacup Café is located at 100 Maria Clara St., Quezon City (in front of Hanobe Asian Food House). Tel nos. 516-5110 and 465-0827. Business hours are from Monday to Thursday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.