Remember when, not too long ago, (the previous post, to be exact) I blogged about our Tree Top Adventure, and I made mention of a certain tea place in a small corner of the Ayala Technohub called “moonleaf”? In another #foodventuresfriday post, I’m here to expound on my visit to that place.
As far as their menu offerings go, I am, almost, 99.9% sure that moonleaf is your typical tea place. Ya noe, if you’ve been to places that serve teas, milk teas, fruiteas and similar beverages, you’ve practically been, well, everywhere.
Of course, they may have specialties, or drinks that they claim to make better or are the best at. I’m not here to refute any of that. Personally, I do not hold lofty standards when it comes to my teas. In fact, the more familiar, the better. Oh sure, I’m willing to go adventurous once in a while but, at the end of the day, nothing is more refreshing than the taste of something familiar.
I guess that’s why tea places and coffee shops in general are now turning to “concept” in order to stand out. That way, while they may offer pretty much the same things on the menu, the ambiance, the decor, the layout and arrangement, the overall feel – the “concept” – of the place will set them apart from everyone else.
moonleaf tea shop is a chain of tea shops with outlets all over the country, much like Serendipitea and Bubbatealicious. They focus on teas brewed in the “authentic Taiwanese way”.
Apparently, it has been in Baguio since 2013-2014, but I do not really frequent Camp John Hay, so… no idea. 🙂
moonleaf tea shop is a no-frills tea shop. It’s small, with a spartan-like feel to the place, having only around three small tables inside. One wall has the shop name set up, perfect for those who want to take a photo and immediately upload on Instagram to “check in”.
I actually forgot what I ordered. It was good, but nothing to rave about. I just remember finding the packaging cute, particularly the seal covers. The ones we got had questions about our personal happiness and relationship status.
Go ahead and be playful; stick the straw right where the appropriate reply is.
Now we come to the real reason that this tea shop charmed us.
The moment you enter, you can tell that this caters to the younger demographic. Students and young adults, mostly.
One entire wall was filled with post-its and various notes of different colors. There were so many that I wondered whether they started accumulating since the tea shop opened, or they had to throw the old ones out to make way for new ones.
Clearly, many of them have been prepped or, shall we say, “scripted”(?), where the management or staff prepared the notes and stuck them on there. Others were handwritten, most likely by customers whiling their time away in the tea shop, nursing their teas.
There are also inspiring quotes on larger frames. So if you’re feeling introspective, feel free to go over all of them. Here’s one.
Here’s the fun part, though. When you go through the notes on the wall, the quotes border between the cringy and the ridiculous. All right, maybe at some points there are romantic ones, but after you’ve gone through so many of them, your toes and fingers are probably going to be curling unto themselves.
In the vernacular, I suppose they would pass off as hugot lines.
I ended up trying to read almost everything my eye level can reach, and that easily took more than several minutes. 🙂 Here are some of the hugot lines stuck on the wall of moonleaf tea shop.
It is safe to say that people mostly come here for the atmosphere, and for the novelty of reading the notes tacked on the wall. The great-tasting teas only come second on the list of reasons to check out moonleaf tea shop.
moonleaf tea shop is located at Baguio-AyalaLand Technohub, Ordonio Drive at Camp John Hay, Baguio City. Check them out on Facebook here.
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