Best Milkteas in the Philippines: One Zo Philippines (Greenhills)
I love my milktea. And it’s no secret that I indulge on it whenever I can – hot days, rainy days, everyday! Well, not everyday, but you get the drill. And while I do not necessarily discriminate on the brand, the flavor, or the sweetness, there’s one thing that’s non-negotiable — pearls/tapioca. It doesn’t matter if you give me the regular milktea, matcha, or fruit tea, just serve it with tapioca pearls! So what if I tell you there’s a new milktea brand that pays tribute to our favorite tapioca pearls? Say one that uses flavored pearls for their milkteas? Yum! Say hello to One Zo Philippines, now open in Promenade Greenhills!
One Zo Tapioca is Your New Favorite Milktea Drink
Just when you think you’ve tasted all the milk tea variants one can concoct, here comes a new player in the local scene to get you back into the craze. Flavored tapioca pearls, freshly made right in front of you. Now, this is definitely worth checking out. Hello One Zo Philippines!
One Zo Tapioca is a fairly young drink brand from Taiwan established in 2015. Now Taiwan is very popular for milkteas, with kiosks and cafes popping up left and right. One Zo’s founder, Mr. Chen Youg-Hui, was inspired to produce the freshest ingredients for his milk teas. This lead to numerous attempts in learning how to make pearls in-house everyday. What made One Zo’s brand stand out, however, is that their pearls have been injected with different flavors.
Just like in the first shop of One Zo Philippines, fresh pearls are made right in front of you. Kneading non-stop and cooking them before your eyes. “The process is quite similar to producing a dough when baking bread. Different ingredients are put into a commercial mixer. Once the tapioca dough is produced, hands are used to beat down the dough to create the perfect texture and shape.”
Flavored Tapioca Pearls, anyone?
“After this delicate process is accomplished, the dough is placed into a special machine that will cut it intoround-shaped pearls,” explained Christopher Chua, General Manager of One Zo Philippines. This lead to the name of the brand, One Zo, which means “playing with balls of dough” in Mandarin.
Bestsellers at One Zo Philippines
Now that you know what to look forward most to One Zo Philippines, let’s go through their bestsellers. As well as our personal favorites.
One Zo Tapioca Milktea offerings are different in every country. And its local distributor thought long and hard to what should go in their menu. For starters, the tapioca pearls of One Zo Philippines come in 5 delicious flavors. They have them in their classic Brown Sugar, Taro, Matcha (green tea), Strawberry, and Mango. And more to come soon for Filipino milktea lovers!
Can’t exactly decide what milktea flavor, rather tapioca pearl flavor, to choose? Then why not go crazy and drink One Zo’s 3-in-1. Think One Zo Milktea + 3 kinds of pearls. While I loved the milkiness of the drink, I couldn’t quite distinguish the 3 pearl flavors from each other.
My mom loved the Taro Delight (Taro Milk Tea + Taro Pearls) for its light yet delightful flavor of the taro. It’s a Match (Matcha Latte + Matcha Pearls) was quite good too. But could have used a better balance of bittersweet by having sweeter pearls.
Personally, though, I had 2 top favorites: Dirty Milk (Brown Sugar + Milk + Brown Sugar Pearls) and the One Zo Fruit Tea (with fresh fruits). After giving the Dirty Milk a good shake, I sipped on a perfect balance of sweet and milky. While the One Zo Fruit Tea is a light and refreshing take on tea. And those fresh fruits, ahhhh, just delightful!! The best part? Pearls are automatically part of each drink, priced just between Php 75.00 and Php 150.00!
Overall Review of One Zo Philippines
So how’s my first overall experience of One Zo Tapioca? Excellent! I loved that each drink had a good balance of flavor – whether sweet, creamy, bitter, or fruity. And of course, let’s not forget the real star of the show, the tapioca pearls! Flavors were good and had a good chewy-bite to them. A real must try for any milktea aficionado!
Overall HTD Rating: 4.3
Taste: 4.5
Price: 4
Service: 4.5
Where is One Zo Tapioca Milktea?
The first store of One Zo Philippines is located at the Ground Floor, Greenhills Promenade, San Juan City. For more updates, follow OneZoPH on Facebook @onezo_ph. Soon to open at the 2nd floor, Estancia Expansion Wing. And at the Upper Ground, Cyberpark 2, Araneta Center.
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