Shadow Milk Tea provides a unique way of enjoying your favorite milk tea, its milk tea in a glass bottle! “Shadow Milk Tea is quite different from other milk tea shops because aside from the great taste, we use recyclable bottles instead of the typical plastic cups. For dine-in customers, you get to drink your favorite milk tea in a glass cup with glass straw,” Celest Bomediano owner of Shadow Milk Tea. Established in November by Celest with the help of cousin, Paola Jane Pilapil and friend Jelly Casona came up with a simple, yet appealing way to serve milk teas. It has been a dream of Celest to start her own shop and with the growing market for milk tea in Cagayan de Oro, along with positive feedbacks decided to open a physical store with the support of her partner Kyle Banaag at Pabayo, T. Chaves St. “It started around November, last year. As a milk tea lover, it has been a dream of mine to open a milk tea shop. For starters, I made milk tea at home or at my friend's house, and sold them to my workmates, for extra income. Then, I tried making a page to promote my milk tea products. I was quite surprised because I received a lot of inquiries. Some were even asking if I had a physical store and that they wanted to visit and try out my milk tea products. A lot of people ordered online and I received a lot of good feedback. This motivated me more to invest and put up my own milk tea shop.” It wasn’t easy, Celest shared there have been a lot of obstacles. They had numerous trial and errors of tests and experiments for each flavor and how it would be made. “Before having my own physical shop, my cousin, Paola Jane Pilapil and one of my close friends, Jelly Casona helped me with the concept and production process for Shadow Milk Tea. We actually did a lot of taste tests and experiments for our milk tea products,” she said. The ongoing pandemic really took a toll on local businesses in Cagayan de Oro, but food and beverages started to rise as delivery apps were growing in popularity during the pandemic. “During the pandemic, there has been a "milk tea craze" and I've noticed that a lot of people have been ordering online for food or milk tea. So, I decided to take this opportunity and put up my own business. My parents were also quite supportive. They helped me with the deliveries and invested in me and my business. Now, me and my boyfriend, Kyle Banaag, who has been so supportive from the start, manage the shop.” Adding that : “A lot of people have discouraged me which is why I had a lot of doubts and second thoughts. But at the same time, a lot of people encouraged me and told me to just go for it. In the end, I decided to take the risk because I believe that in business, you'll only regret the chances you didn't take,” Try Shadow Milk Tea’s best seller the Wintermelon and Okinawa Milk Tea you can dine-in or have it delivered via foodpanda. “ I would recommend my personal favorite, Okinawa Milk Tea. I am a big fan of brown sugar milk tea. Our Okinawa Milk Tea has a roasted brown sugar flavor. It's best paired with our Cream Cheese and Pearl. Come and visit us at Shadow Milk Tea! We are open from Monday-Saturday, 10:00am-7:00pm. We are located at 68 Toribio Chaves Pabayo St, Beside Sacred Heart Diagnostic Center, Across Crafts Advertising,” Celest concluded.