Photo by Neidy Gutierrez / SOC Images.
Two bites —that’s all that it takes to satisfy your sweet craving with a Tita’s Tea Time treat.
Lea Aclan and Kristine Villarica are re-introducing polvoron, a classic Filipino dessert, with a modern twist to go with an afternoon tea, be given as a pasalubong (souvenir or gift) or to just let you have that sweet treat. Born in the Philippines and raised in Jersey City, the two told Slice of Culture that they’re grateful to be contributing to the Filipino community, and they hope they can serve other communities too.
“[We] love Jersey City… we just love the community and like the streets that we spent years just walking everywhere and taking the No. 80 bus up and down West Side Avenue,” Aclan laughed. “Past all the Filipino restaurants, thinking like, ‘Oh, we could do that one day’ … and [now] contributing to something that we grew up with is like such an honor for me.”
“I feel like we weren’t represented as well, especially in the media or mainstream food communities… And we wanna kind of step into it and I think it’s gaining momentum too that Filipino food is getting out there,” Villarica added.
They Weren’t Happy In Corporate. They Wanted To Bake For The Community
It came to a point where they were “chasing the wrong things” and overall not happy, they said.
Villarica has a bachelor’s of science in biology while Aclan was a food product development manager, and they were both in corporate settings.
“We just wanted to escape [to] something that was more and going to something that was more true to ourselves, which was baking and making things for our community, like for representing the Filipino community as well,” Villarica explained.
So then there they were, sitting in a coffee shop one day, job hunting, when somehow they revisited the idea of selling desserts.
“We just started thinking, ‘This dessert looks so cute, I think we could do that,” Aclan said, mimicking a dessert in her hand. “… Kristine and I thought we could do this ourselves. Why not? We have the skills to, or we think we have the skills to, and just took a leap on ourselves and bet on ourselves.”
And so they did.
They went through some dessert variations—one including sushi ice cream, which they said, laughing, didn’t pan out well—but ultimately what stuck were sweets that they liked baking for themselves and/or treats they couldn’t find elsewhere, which were polvoron and other treats with Filipino flavors.
The product idea was there now they needed logo and branding, which is the creative side that Villarica taps into. The two wanted to encompass the “classic side” of tea time meshed with the forestry and tropical tones of the Philippines as well as mixing in Spanish motifs like their architecture; when you add all that together, you get Tita’s Tea Time’s logo, box decor and table vending decor.
As for the name, there’s a little more to it.
“The tea party is for the titas [aunts]. So they could impress their friends and have a tea party. So we’re not the Titas. That’s the tea!” Villarica said, as her and Aclan laughed.
Aclan added, “Titas love talking and gossiping and just having fun and like they love going out, they love dressing up. And we thought that that would be cute for a tea setting. So that’s how ‘Tita’s Tea’ came up [and] came about. And it was actually supposed to be called ‘Tita’s Tea Party’ because we wanted it to be a party.”
They officially debuted in October 2024 with a first appearance at Baonanas, on Monticello Avenue, who was hosting their Ube Fest, which celebrates Filipino food culture; this happened with the help and encouragement of James and Chef Ruby of Next Door Provisions, a restaurant located in The Agnes on the West Side of Jersey City, which offers Filipino twists on traditional dishes.
Almost a year later, Aclan, who’s the food scientist, and Villarica, who’s the creative and gluten-free ambassador, said it’s been a “rollercoaster ride.”
Filipino Roots + Tea Party = Tita’s Tea Time
Now, you’ll find Tita’s Tea Time popping up all around Jersey City and beyond; all you have to look out for are the purple, dangling flowers, a blue banner, a traditional tea time set up and, of course, small, colorful desserts.
They offer different treats like:
- Fleur de Polvoron
- Kyut kyut krinkles
- Manila Clam Madeleine
- Puto bites, which they lean into playful names like “Mahal Kita, Puto!” (Translating to “I love you, puto” from Tagalog, but in Spanish, “puto” is a curse word).
“Just having fun with our food. That’s really what the tea time is about,” Aclan laughed. “… We just like being a little bit extra just because we just love what we’re doing and just having fun with everything really is all what it’s all about.”
All the sweets are available in different flavors—some being gluten-free—like ube, pandan, red velvet and calamansi, to name a few. They also started selling Dubai chocolates.
But from the kitchen to the vending table isn’t easy work. However, Aclan and Villarica said working on their products together in the kitchen does bring back memories.
“My mom grew up making puto all the time, like on Sundays. She would steam it and she would have the best puto recipe. Actually the puto recipe [we use] is my mom’s recipe, so I’ve taken it and made it gluten free, but at the base, it’s my mom’s recipe. So every time I bake the puto, I think of my mom. She’s very much involved in the business as well. She loves supporting us and helping us out,” Aclan said.
Villarica added, “My grandma who actually just passed away recently, she would make ube and for me to actually make it myself, it’s a labor of love because you’re sitting by the stove for a good hour just churning slowly [laughs]. So we actually use a lot of ube in our products. So it’s definitely like a core memory using that in our products.”
Introducing Their Tea Time Treats To The World
For Aclan and Villarica, Jersey City helped shape who they are, and they told Slice of Culture that they feel “blessed” to be able to do something for the people of their city.
Filipinos make up roughly 7% of the city’s population, and while their blueprints are known all over West Side Avenue and a section of Journal Square—thanks to the famous Philippine Bread House and Little Quiapo—but only recently have they made its way to Downtown Jersey City and the Heights.
“I think it’s because, you know, there’s first generation Filipinos and we had our mom and pop shops, the calenderias [stores that sell food and other essentials] on West Side or on Newark [Avenue] popping up. But [now] the kids who grew up from that family, they wanna turn it into themselves, into their own creations. And so I think that’s what we’re seeing a lot now in the Filipino foodie community,” Villarica explained.
And Aclan and Villarica are just like those kids.
Tita’s Tea Time’s anniversary is coming up in October, which is also Filipino-American History Month. You can follow their Instagram @titasteatime to see their next pop-up events in North and South Jersey along with different collaborations with some businesses, “wink, wink,” as Aclan said.
They’re looking to release a website soon, but in the meantime people can DM them for catering orders for parties or any other special orders.
“I think we have the typical first generation story but then [it’s about] going past that,” Aclan said.
Like starting our own businesses–most Filipinos usually don’t really have that opportunity to and [we want to be] helping pave the way for other Filipinos… we wanna help become leaders in the community as well and try to help out anyone else that’s trying to make it in this world.
Showing other Filipinos out there that you can do whatever you wanna do.”
