Who doesn’t love milk tea? With so many milk tea places to choose from, though, how do you decide on where to order from? For me, I take three things into consideration: the taste (of course), the price, and the location. Now that we’re all stuck at home getting used to a new kind of normal, going out is no longer an option for me. Obviously, milk tea doesn’t really taste as good if it comes from somewhere farther away, so I opt to only order from places here in the South.
Whilst looking for something new to try, I stumbled upon NamFu Cafe in Las Piñas. What you might not know is that Nam Fu was actually supposed to be called NamFuCha. 😉 It may sound like a swear word, but there is actually a different meaning behind it. Angelica Paredes, the owner, explains that ‘Nam’ means South – which fits the location of the milk tea place, but also symbolizes her personal love for the beaches in the South. ‘Fu’, in Chinese, means fortune, blessings, and good luck. ‘Cha’ was supposed to stand for tea; but apparently, the whole name put together didn’t sit well with the DTI. :p
The catchy name aside, another thing that caught my attention was their unique variety of flavors. This was the first time I had seen a milk tea place that offers an avocado flavor and a strawberry cheesecake flavor – and my interest was piqued.
In the beginning, Angelica admits looking at the flavors that other milk tea shops had to offer and what their bestsellers were. When deciding on her final flavors, though, Angelica did a few trial runs with her brother with her cousins and sister in law working as their so-called ‘judges’. That’s how they adjusted their flavors in the beginning, but their adjustments don’t stop there.
Angelica shares that she is open to adjusting according to their customers’ preferences. Some need less tea in their drinks because of palpitations, for example, while others prefer less sugar. She points out that this kind of feedback is the most important thing to her because her ultimate priority is for her customers to enjoy their drinks and get their money’s worth.
I am personally not a fan of sweet drinks. I usually get 25% sugar at different milk tea places. Despite not having sugar levels at NamFu, I decided to wing it and ordered their Cookies and Cream Overload. Contrary to what I expected, the sweetness turned out to be just right. My family loved their orders, too: Brown Sugar, Cheesecake, and Wintermelon.
According to Angelica, NamFu’s bestsellers are the Cookies and Cream Overload, Cheesecake, and Wintermelon; but I urge you to try some of their other flavors, as well. After all, at 70 pesos per regular drink (with pearls) and 80 pesos per large drink; you won’t feel like you wasted your money – and who knows? You might just find a new favorite flavor!
Angelica shares that she intentionally didn’t hike up her prices for a reason. “Aside from having just started, I really wanted my drinks to be affordable so that even people on a tight budget can satisfy their milk tea cravings when they want to,” she says. Angelica also gave out free milk tea to frontliners when they had barely opened their store in Las Piñas. That just goes to show how much she values people and how kind her heart is as a whole.
With a heart like hers, I really hope that more people discover and love NamFu Cafe as much as I do. Try them out today!
NamFu Cafe
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/NamFuCafe
Instagram: @namfucafe
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