Blog Giveaway #6 - The Moonleaf 2012 Planner

Moonleaf Tea Shop, a fully Filipino-owned brand of tea and milk tea, with its main branch located at Maginhawa St. Quezon City, is one of the popular and trusted tea places at present in Manila.

Their tea and milk tea drinks selection include basic teas (black tea, jasmine greentea, wintermelon tea, oolong tea, pearl black tea, and pearl jasmine tea), fruit teas (lychee jasmine tea, passionfruit yakult, yakult jasmine, etc), and milk tea (jasmine milk tea, pudding milk tea, oolong milk tea, caramel milk tea, hakka milk tea, among others), which are guaranteed to taste fresh and refreshing. (P.S. I love their Jasmine Milk Tea or Jasmine Tea with pearls)



Moonleaf Tea Ship opened its doors on October 03, 2010, more than a year ago, and now, branches and franchise of the brand are starting to pop-up all over the Metro, and in the provinces, with Pampanga and Naga branches opening soon.

It's the brainchild of Adrian Adriano, in collaboration with other UP students, like my friends Serg Domasian and Thysz Estrada, to name a few. Now, Moonleaf has something new to offer their patrons, as they launched "The Moonleaf 2012 Planner," which costs Php 300 each. No stickers needed to get/purchase a planner.



Here are some of the features of the planner (photos of the inside of The Moonleaf 2012 Planner):

It has a bare plain white cover, with a circular window which exposes "2012," the year of the planner. The outside cover can be customizable or doodled on depending on the taste and creativity of the owner. Some like it simple, some like it wild.



It provides for a spread which shows the owner the whole 2012 and 2013 calendars, also it has a page for birthdays which you want to remember. Before each month starts, it has a few pages for "Notes." The week is perfectly laid out per spread, with a "To Do" checklist every after week.



Generally, the dates in the planner show the phases of the moon, which is actually a cool trivia. At the latter part of the planner, you can see a page where the discount coupons and the freebies are located, together with all the drinks you can order and customize at Moonleaf Tea Shop.



Now, Moonleaf has been kind enough to give The Philippines and Beyond a Moonleaf 2012 Planner to give away to the readers. Here's how you can get The Moonleaf 2012 Planner for free:

HOW TO WIN THE MOONLEAF 2012 PLANNER:

Crazy Katsu along Maginhawa

While driving down Maginhawa Street in Teachers Village, Quezon City with my family last week to satisfy our craving for Moon Leaf Milk Tea, we saw this brightly lit restaurant, Crazy Katsu, which, judging by its name, is a Japanese restaurant. We wanted to try it, but we already ate dinner that time.



I got the chance to try it some days ago, after work, with my colleague/friend Ly. We were hungry and craving, and decided to try Crazy Katsu, for the first time. Parking might be a problem, if Maginhawa is jam-packed with diners, but I am sure you will be able to find a parking spot. Patience is a virtue. :)



We were really hungry by the time we got to Quezon City, so we went straight to ordering. I got the Chicken Katsu, while Ly ordered the Tonkatsu. We also ordered the Gyoza. All orders of the "Katsu" came with a bowl of rice. The Chicken Katsu is fried boneless chicken strips, really spicy because of the chopped chili on top of it, marinated with a sour-spicy sauce over a bed of chopped cabbage. The food was good, nothing extraordinary, but for the price, it is something worth trying.



Ly got the Tonkatsu, which she says is okay. Nothing special, but I guess it satisfied her hunger. Fried pork strips, over a bed of chopped cabbage. It came with rice. Tonkatsu sauce and Japanese mayo were also served, which the customer gets to put them on top of the food, as much as he/she wants.



Crazy Katsu is located at #81 Unit I Maginhawa St., Teacher’s Village U.P., 1101 Diliman, Philippines. You can contact them at +632-435-0030. I would suggest that after you eat at Crazy Katsu, you go a few blocks down to Moon Leaf Tea Shop to try out their milk tea selection, which you would definitely go back for. ;)



All Photos are taken using an HTC Chacha, and the Camera360 application. Sorry for the quality of the shots.