coffee talk: Davao gets first dibs on Macau's Juice Cubi

The Juice Cubi brand Monster Series includes Starry Night, Ocean Breeze, and Lady In Red.

After getting their fill of milk and cheese-based drinks, Dabawenyos are lucky to get first dibs on what Juice Cubi, a Macau-based juice drink company, has to offer.

Thanks to Davao-based entrepreneur Irene Co-Uy who opened last week the country’s first Juice Cubi store at SM City Ecoland. The brand may be some kind of a novelty for Dabawenyos which is not surprising at all considering that it has never been offered here, until Irene got the exclusive brand franchise for the Philippines.

“We have the exclusive franchise in the Philippines for Juice Cubi which means we can deal with anyone who wants to open a Juice Cubi here," she said.

The first branch of the fruit tea store is set to open by end of August at the Mall of Asia (MOA) in Pasay City.

Irene chose the city to be the brand’s first location in the Philippines because she has been based in the city for the past three years and she saw the demand and the opportunity here.

However, she also acknowledged that Manila presents a larger market so they also want to establish the brand there.

Juice Cubi, which is also known as Juice Mummy under the Juice Monster brand of Banhe Catering Management, Co., Ltd, originated from Macau. It is a special juice shop that also belongs to the Macau Imperial Tea brand already established in the city.

“As exclusive franchise holder, we are the only one authorized to put up the Juice Cubi brand in the Philippines and if someone is interested to franchise they meet up with us,” she said.

The franchise fee for opening a Juice Cubi store depends on the size of the store. Franchise fee for the 25-square meter kiosk type which only sells drinks, can range from P2 to P3 million.

The kiosk is much smaller than the standalone store that recently opened here, which sells the different fruit tea varieties as well as pastries.

The franchise fee already includes all the equipment, furniture, appliances and the first batch of raw materials needed by the business owner to start and operate the juice kiosk. It also includes the manual and the operating procedure.

Juice Cubi’s brand ambassador is Cubi Rabbit, a playful rabbit that represents the target market of the brand, the playful and adventure-loving young and young-once consumers.

The brand’s most popular drink “Starry Night” viral online because of its changing color.

Soon, Juice Cubi will incorporate local fruit flavors into their product line-up with durian as a first choice. After all, the Philippines is a tropical country rich in fruits like mango and they want to take advantage of that.

If you want to get your money's worth then a must-try is the Dark Knight Monster Drink.