A Collectible Tradition: Starbucks Planners 2005-2012

Ah, yes. Christmas. Twinkling lights, singing children. Cold winds, perfect cuddle weather. Simbang Gabi. Mmm, yes, the smell of freshly prepared Bibingka & Putobumbong. Wait, what’s that I smell? Ah, the scent of fresh Peppermint Mocha and Toffee Nut.

It’s been almost like a traditional annual competition to see who completes the set of stickers first to get the planner. My sister’s been collecting these stickers since 2009. And she’s had her 2012 planner since last month, which she now gives me permission to show you all, detail-by-detail, later on. But the oldest SB Planner I’ve seen has been the one in 2005 which I bet very few of you even know about.

I hunted around the internet to find some pictures for a little time machine backtrack. So let’s dig a little deeper into the ancestry of the Starbucks Planner.

2005. 

2006.

2007.

2008.

2009.

2010.

2011.

2012.

The Moonlight Shines on Village Square

I don’t know how many times I’ve asked MoonLeaf Tea Shop to put itself somewhere nearer to Taft Avenue, but now, my prayers have finally been answered.

MoonLeaf Tea Shop now has a branch open at Village Square, a little walk away into Vito Cruz. It’s quaint, and for now, really quiet.

I first visited MoonLeaf at their Maginhawa Branch with a couple of best friends. I got myself some Jasmine Milk and a bit of Matcha Panna Cotta. Before we left, the manager of the branch asked us to try some samples for their new yogurt tea.  And I asked if they’ll be putting up a shop around Taft Avenue. MLTS usually targets student-high locations, especially those of the top universities in the Metro. The first to have a nearby MLTS would be UP, followed by UST, ADMU, and now our very own De La Salle University – Manila. The manager promised us that for all branches opening up, they will exhibit the same relaxing, refreshing style as the original branch. And this promise has been kept, as seen from the above photo of the store.

Here are a couple of photos from our first visit at the Maginhawa Branch, if you’d like to see them.

Everything still looks the same and still exudes that all too familiar feel. A mix of fresh and fun with clean cut lines and neutral modern-day zen. Really, the only difference this new branch has with the others would be the fact that it’s brand new and has very, very few customers–but that last one  will soon change, because I’ll be around there more often now. And you will too, right? (Or maybe it shouldn’t change, so we could force MLTS to move closer to the university? Maybe we could ask the university to have an MLTS Cybernook? Please?)

{Finally! Moonleaf // Village Square} Near Taft. Ave. — much love from LaSalle! @thoughtspresso @poshchavez

But the good thing about it not being too close to campus is that it wouldn’t be as crowded as every other coffee or tea place along Taft area, making the Village Square the perfect hideaway spot, to read and study, without being distracted by friends who will nonchalantly pass by and chat with you. Especially during Finals Week? I call it Battlefield Taft: Survival Experience. Now with MoonLeaf around, I think it’ll be easier to get by, don’t you?

If you know these two gentlemen who I heard study in CSB, then please do tell them that they make great poster boys for MoonLeaf. HAHA.

As I said, plenty of the style elements of MoonLeaf Tea Shop is retained, and the continuity is actually for the better. It’s this exact style that makes MoonLeaf not only a tea place, but an entire brand name, a style, a logo, an icon. MoonLeaf has only started up a little over a year ago, and has celebrated its first anniversary only a couple months back. But its overwhelming success has turned it into a familiar name, enough to get its own planner, like all the top coffee shops we’ve come to know and love.

The cork-boards and pigeonholes aren’t entirely unique to MoonLeaf alone, but as a tea place, I think it’s the only one I’ve seen so far that does include it. It’s one of those special things about MoonLeaf that makes it so perfect for students.

I checked the board and saw lots of LaSallian Lovin’. They even have a celebrity appearance here: DLSU-USG’s Legislative Representative Abi Inserto (second from the left) and her groupmates, who “survived because of MoonLeaf”.

Now that I have successfully managed to convince you to come over here, it’s time to answer everyone’s favorite question:

How do I get there?

Okay then. You can try walking there from Vito Cruz. Walk until you get past the Baseball Stadium, and do not take a right turn to Harrison. Instead, walk straight ahead. You will pass by (to your left) the Mang Inasal Billboard, The Buoy Restaurant and Orchid Gardens Suites. It’s a bit past Century Park Hotel, on the right side. And you will find a KFC and a Mang-Inasal, and a doorway that says HP Village Square. Go in there and you will find MoonLeaf to the right. And if you’re wondering, yes. I had to walk all the way there to find it for the first time.

If you dislike walking, then try riding on an orange shuttle jeep, which can be found at Vito Cruz after the right turn from the SB at Torre Lorenzo, and just get off once you see the KFC.

If you REALLY dislike walking, and you’re from LaSalle or CSB, then just hop onto a pedi-cab–which is actually illegal, but admit it: it’s convenient–tell the Kuya-Manong-Pedicab-Driver to drop you off at Harrison Plaza, go into the mall, and find your way into Village Square.

If you guys have never been to MoonLeaf before–and I wouldn’t blame you, especially if you’re a South or Central-East kid, because MoonLeaf mostly catered to the North before (so yay for this branch, and all their future branches down South)–and do not know what to order from there, go on ahead and check their menu on the official website.

But really, my friend Posch–just call her P!–lives at Cavite, but went to Katipunan once to check out the MoonLeaf branch there.

So yup. You have no excuse to not get a lovingly refreshing drink from MoonLeaf Tea Shop. Hihi. ♥

Suspense is a Total Killer: MoonLeaf 2012 Planner Previews

The #MoonLeaf2012Planner landed itself as the sixth top trending tweet worldwide on microblogging platform Twitter.com, and second in the Philippines, only last December 8, 2011.

We only know a couple of things about it so far. A few people have already received (or won) their planners. But they will be available to the general public around next week. From the tweets and announcements from @moonleafteashop, we have found out the following things:

1. It has discount coupons, and two coupons for free drinks: one on your birthday, and one for the MLTS Anniversary.
2. The planner’s pages include the lunar cycle on the days, because some of its discount coupons can be used only on a specified lunar state.
3. The planner is minimalist, and its design is inspired greatly by the moon. It even has a circular cover window, showing only “2012″ in the front. Its color palette reflects on the over-all store design of all the MoonLeaf branches. 
4. For every month, it shows a beautifully designed typography piece of the month’s name, and a list of birthdays you have to remember: 
5. The entire week will be layouted in one full spread, with a matching to-do list. 
6. Lastly, the MoonLeaf menu, complete. “A year in MoonLeaf Tea Drinks.” And a page for notes. This will be perfect for those of you, like me, who will make it a mission to sample everything and critique everything this year. 
7. Its thickness is 100 (moon)leaves. And I got that (moon)leaves pun from the official twitter announcement.
8. Unlike most planners from coffee shops, the MoonLeaf Tea Shop 2012 Planner will not need a sticker promo to be purchased.
9. It can be bought straight up from the shop in selected branches, and reservation for the planner will be available in all branches starting this Monday (December 12, 2011.)
10. It costs only 300PHP, which in comparison to the 2000PHP approx. you spend collecting stickers for –insert coffee shop here–to get their planner, it’s a pretty good bargain. You don’t have to spend that much, and you’d still have some money left over to buy some of their amazing tea, which is also affordable like their beautiful planner.

I don’t know about you guys, but I just cannot wait for these planners to be available.

All images used in this post are from the official MoonLeafTeaShop Twitter Feed.

The Beauty of Choice

If I have to fight for it, then it wasn’t meant for me.

It’s a pretty lovely belief, really, to think that you can’t force yourself into something that you think is yours, because it’s already yours, and that no matter what you do, and no matter what happens, you’ll find each other in the end. The entire system of the universe will bring you together, because that love has been yours from the very beginning, and no matter what happens, it always will be. It’s the entire Red String of Fate Philosophy. And it seems pretty sweet like that, but then I told her:

Love is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

–Howard Walowitz, The Big Bang Theory

“It is a relentless pursuit…” Love is a job. Love is a lot of hard work. If you want it, you have to get off your ass and get it, and do everything it takes to have it. And when you have it, you have to wake up every morning to take care of it, and get to bed every night to prepare for another tomorrow of it. Love is years and years of hard work, making sure it doesn’t fall apart. Love is doing everything to make sure you don’t give up all the happy moments because of a small bend in the road.

I do believe, to some extent, that there is a specially wonderful certain case when you were meant for each other. Genetics suggest that some people are just biologically born for each other, and that their genetic make-up will create perfect offspring. I think some people were born for each other, in a sense that there are certain physical traits and some other things, like small habits and emotional characteristics, that no one else will find totally attractive but that one special person. But it doesn’t mean that the world will bring you two together because of that, or that the system of the universe will conspire to put you in that place. And everything will go perfectly for it.

I think ‘destiny’ or ‘unique design’ stops at that. You were born with the unique traits, and raised with a certain set of habits and skills that only one person in the world will find particularly attractive about you and no one can ever doubt that you were made to be together. But you still have to find that person, do everything to be with that person, and when you’re finally together, you still have to face every new day of fresh hell to be with each other, come what may.

You don’t give up because of problems. You don’t sneak out of bed in the morning because you think ‘this isn’t going to work out’. You don’t just hang up the phone because you’re tired of the dozen times she’s nagged you about some non-existent woman she’s afraid you’re flirting with.

Love is tiresome, and draining, and difficult, and convoluted.

But love is also beautiful and true and pure. And what makes it so is because of all the effort you make for it.

One of the best philosophy lectures I’ve heard about freedom was delivered by my professor, Mark Anthony Dacela, who shared with us the story of the night he had to go pick up his girlfriend from work. He had a couple of teaching jobs in three different places, and his girlfriend was at the further end of the city. He was running pretty late, so as he hurried to get there, he slipped in a dark alley as it rained. He also got chased by a thief. And when he was near, he received a message from her that she was going to be late. So he went to a nearby bar, waiting for the rain and the mud to dry off his clothes as he contemplated on why he has to do this every single day. Everything seemed like a futile effort. “What for?” He asked us in class. He said that it seemed like love is just a learned habit, that he’s being controlled by this notion of love into doing something over and over again.

But then he said,

“I saw the reason why I do these things for her. It was because I loved her, and I choose to do everything everyday because I love her. No one’s controlling me to do it. Don’t you think that’s more beautiful than the so-called destiny? Isn’t love an expression of true freedom?”

So I honestly think that love is beautiful because it is difficult. Just like any art. You don’t hail someone for singing Twinkle Twinkle unless she’s four-years-old. No, you praise the talent of the soprano who spends months rehearsing, carefully tending to her voice and superfluously delivering every note. You don’t frame a crayon doodle in the Louvre, but you honor the painting or the sculpture carefully crafted with every detail painted with such masterful delicacy.

Hard, back-breaking, mind-wracking, heart-shattering work is what makes something so insanely beautiful, more so when you actually choose to go through with all of it. When you choose to love, and choose to do everything, to fight against all odds to be with that person and let that person know how much love you have in your heart, when you choose to allow love to consume your being, your very existence, that’s when love is true.

Love is true because it is free.