Christopher Bennetts

There are many things we take for granted back home and one would be getting something simple like a cup of tea.

While the situation has improved significantly over the past 20 years since I first started travelling to the Philippines getting a cup of tea can still be a challenge. Filipinos are coffee drinkers and hot tea is not very popular.

I suppose I am a bit of tea addict.   I hear many say they cannot even start their day without a cup of coffee but for me it’s a cup of tea.  At home I make myself a pot of tea each morning and add my quarter teaspoon of sugar with fresh milk (real fresh milk as opposed to the mislabelled UHT which I do not like).

The difficulty in getting a cup of tea was brought back to me when I recently visited Cebu.  I had breakfast at what one would describe as an up-market restaurant.  I ordered the Full English breakfast which included coffee and asked if that could be substituted for Tea.  They said yes.  I was then asked to select only two items from the Full English breakfast description which made it really only a half English breakfast.  I switched to Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce.   

When the Tea arrived I could tell from the color and smell that it was not right.   My suspicions were confirmed.  They had served Korean Green Tea and that is all they had.   I pulled a Lipton Yellow Label Tea bag from a small packet in my pocket as when I am  travelling I am always prepared for such eventualities.

In another restaurant I ordered Tea only to be supplied with ICE tea which is actually very popular in the Philippines.  You really need to stipulate “hot tea” or there is a good chance you will get served ICE tea.

On another morning I visited McDonalds for breakfast and found no difficulty in requesting they substitute the included coffee for hot water so that I could use my own tea bag.  I have also found JollyBee to be just as accommodating.  

I did not have the same luck on a recent overnight ferry trip to Mindanau.  I had my trusty teabag with me only to discover that yes they served coffee but used the 3 in 1 type where the “creamer” or milk powder and sugar are included in the premix.   They did not have those items available separately.

So to be fully prepared you need to bring small packets of Coffe Mate or Creamer and Sugar as well as teabags.

At the SM shopping mall there is a popular chain of Bake Shops with attached restaurants called The French Baker.   In the Cebu SM French Baker I also was not able to get a simple cup of tea despite them having a Box of exotic teas on display. They must have about a dozen varieties of Tea but all are herbal.  They do not have a simple black tea.   

In the provinces most of the better Hotels also do not have Tea available.   In one city I recently visited the best hotel that served the finest international cuisine could not give me a cup of tea at breakfast.  This hotel prided itself on being International and catering to foreigners.   So a quick trip back up to the room to fetch the tea bag I had assumed I would not need in that establishment. 

In the same city I also had trouble finding a place to buy teabags.  The local supermarket simply did not have them.  They only had something else I am loath to try called Milk Tea which I suspect is the tea equivalent of the 3 in 1 coffee premix. Eventually I was able tofind tea bags in a pharmacy.

While getting a cup of Tea can be a challenge in the Philippines if you bring your own tea bags, creamer and sugar you should not have too much trouble getting hot water.