First Sip: One Zo

Milk tea is everywhere and it is so close to turning me into the same shape as tapioca! But it's just too hard to resist especially when new brands keep opening here and there. And just a few weeks back, a boba shop also from Taiwan opened in Promenade Greenhills. But unlike all the other milk tea joints, this one makes its pearls from scratch and cook fresh batches every day. And did I mention that it comes in different flavors?

Hello, One Zo. 

Named after the Mandarin translation for playing with balls of dough, One Zo is known for its freshly made flavored pearls. 

The concept started with the founder Mr. Chen Youg-Hui wanting produce fresh ingredients for its milk tea. This made him focus on the production of the famous sinker, boba. And not only was he successful in making fresh tapioca balls every day for each store, he also managed to offer something unique--flavored pearls!

As a first timer, I went for its 3-in-1 (PHP120 | PHP140) and It's a MATCH! (PHP145 | PHP165). Other guests went for other bestsellers such as Taro Delight (PHP110 | PHP130) and Dirty Milk (PHP130 | PHP150). A few who are not very fond of milk tea went with Fruit Tea drinks (PHP125) or Tea beverages (PHP75 | PHP95).

Usually simple orders like iced tea and fruit tea are served quick while milk tea drinks, especially ones with special requests take about 5 to 15 minutes depending on the number of customers. 

My 3-in-1 milk tea took quite long and I had to follow up when I saw the others who ordered after me got their drinks. Turns out that 3-in-1 has a standard set of flavored pearls and my request for matcha, brown sugar and taro pearls and milk tea at 50% sugar caused the delay. 

The One Zo milk tea was good. It had that faint tea taste which balanced the sweetness of the pearls. If you're not very fond of sweet drinks, go for zero sugar as the flavored pearls are really sweet. 

I love that each pearl indeed taste just like how it is marketed. However, if you get 3-in-1, it's best to avoid brown sugar as it tends to overpower the other flavors. 

I was excited to try It's a Match as I'm a fan of anything green tea. And though this matcha latte with matcha pearls do taste like green tea, it didn't have that slight bitterness which I love. Maybe I should have also went with zero sugar instead of 50%. 

I'll definitely try Taro Delight and Dirty Milk next time and probably go for zero sugar as One Zo's 50% sugar level is still too sweet for my tita taste buds.

One Zo is located at Ground Floor, Promenade, Greenhills, San Juan.