Okinawa with pekoe

What is that again? Okinawa with pekoe?

With a bag full of grocery items in each hand, I wanted to freshen up before going home last Sunday. I kept looking along the street for a place to drop and stand by for a while until I saw this.

"Now open? So this is obviously a new food house." I thought. My eyes were fixed on the cups of tea on the lower portion of the standing poster. "What's pekoe?" I thought.

"Go find out!" the alter ego answered.

I got inside the tea shop and two ladies greeted me cheerfully. One was in green and the other was in red.

"Hi, ma'am!" was their unanimous first words.

"Hello! Let's try your pekoe tea. What's pekoe by the way?" I asked.

None of them answered but one offered for me to try Gyoza along with my tea.

"Hold on. What tea flavors do you have first?" I asked while leaving my bags of groceries on the table and advancing to the counter. Then I saw this brochure of Okinawa milk tea.

Beside the Okinawa milk tea brochure are more brochures for other flavors.

There are also more options on their monitor over head inside the counter.

"I saw these in other tea shops that I had drinks before. I guess pekoe will be the differentiator from the others. But what's pekoe?" I was talking to myself. I found out about it later to mean, according to dictionary.com as:

pekoe
—noun

a superior kind of black tea from Sri Lanka, India, and Java, made from leaves coarser than those used for orange pekoe.
Origin: 1705–15; < dialectal Chinese (Xiamen) pek-ho, akin to Chinese báu white + hòu empress

"What do you recommend? What's flavor is your specialty?" I asked without waiting for an answer.

"Okay, let's try this Okinawa milk tea. No sugar please." I continued.

"Maybe you would like to try the gyoza, ma'am?" The lady in red asked.

"What is that?" I asked without really paying attention. My purpose in the shop was the milk tea.

"It is Japanese dumpling. You will like it."

"It's fine. Just the tea for now."

They both went behind the counter to prepare my milk tea. While they were busy at the back, I started getting busy taking photos.

While I was taking photos, one of them asked.

"Large, ma'am?"

"Ah, smart upsale." I thought but instead said, "No. just the medium one please."

I wondered what rock salt cheese tastes like when I saw this frame on the wall. Why, I did not notice this when I came in? I could have tried it. Anyway, maybe next time.

After taking photos of the tea frames on the wall, I went out to take photo of the whole front of the tea shop but I can not capture its name on the roof. It was just above me when I stand on the sidewalk so I can not capture it.

I went back inside and my cup of tea was already waiting on the table.

"Oh, it's there. But hold on. I want to take photo of the front of the shop but I can't."

"How come? Which one?" the lady in green asked.

"I want a photo of the front including the signboard on the roof but it looks like I have to be on the road to capture that."

"It's okay, ma'am. I'll take a photo for you." She went out without asking for my phone. After a while she came back and said she can't do it after all. She's afraid that she might be hit by cars. I laughed. That's fair enough. I actually appreciared the effort of trying to pamper me.

Then the lady in green reminded me again of the gyoza.

"Okay, let's try it. You cook while I cross the street and take the front photo that I was saying... Ah, you're already cooking!" The lady in red was already behind the counter over the stove before I finished what I was saying. Wow, that's a real quick action.

Okay, here now is the photo of the shop front. I had to cross the street and be on the sidewalk on the other side to take a few of these. And this was actually when I realized that the stall has two names.

Moon Pekoe Tea
Misuta Gyoza

Each has different color and font so it can not be just one name.

I went back inside and asked what really is the name of the stall. The lady in green said the two are of different franchise.

Hah! The owner is so smart to have both in one stall! That's the business mindset.

Okay, now let's go to my waiting cup of tea.

I was thirsty before I got inside the tea shop. Now I am more thirsty with all the "photo shoots" outside. But I was surprised on my first sip. It is sweet!

"Is this really no-sugar?" I asked no one in particular. The lady in green said yes.

"How come it is very sweet? It's like 100% sugar. I supposed the milk tea powder has sugar already mixed in, is it?"

"Ma'am, Okinawa milk tea really has sugar because it is prepared with brown sugar."

Okay, I was right. Good thing that I ordered for zero sugar then. I wonder how much sweeter could it get if I asked even for just 20% sugar.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I searched for Okinawa milk tea and here is what I got:

Okinawa Milk Tea or Roasted Milk Tea uses a special roasted brown sugar.

Well, it's zero sugar state is actually my 100% alreafy so I was so happy with my tea. Add to that my joy like a kid while sipping the sago pearls from the bottom of the cup.

While enjoying my tea and the gyoza (which I will write about it separately), I asked the two ladies if I can take their photos and put on the internet. They said it's okay. They actually posed cheerfully for me.

When I was playing with my cup, I turned it around and noticed these franchise contact details on the other side. That is a very clever advertising and very low cost marketing technique! I tried several milk tea brands but I do not recall one that had this idea.

Overall, this new food shop is very nice place to cool down in a hot place like Metro Manila. Their price range is fairly the same as other tea shops that I tried so there is nothing new to that. What I really liked was how the cree treated me and how cheerful they are in giving in to my whimper. Remember one of them was even willing to take photos for me. That was an exceptional customer service!

Moon Pekoe Tea
Stall #2 Block 9 Lot 5
San Antonio Avenue corner Fatima Street
SAV-1 San Antonio
Parañaque City
Philippines

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Restaurant Information

Moon Pekoe Tea

San Antonio Ave, San Antonio, Parañaque, 1700 Metro Manila, Philippines

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Okinawa with pekoe
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