Chua siblings (from left) Royce Gerald, Roche Geraldyn and Royce Gerik now manage Eng Bee Tin 

MANILA -- More than a century ago, the popular Eng Bee Tin store was originally known as Eng Bee Tin Hopia Factory. Through the years, when it decided to expand, it became known as Eng Bee Tin Chinese Delicacy that included other Oriental products.

“We expanded through different products, not just hopia,” Royce Gerik Chua, the eldest among the three siblings and the fourth generation owners now managing the company, told ABS-CBN News.

“If you will think about it, all of us have kwentong hopia. Hopia has been passed on to us for generations. Filipinos were not the ones who discovered hopia. But hopia has been part of our everyday lives. No matter what happens, all of us have a core memory that has hopia in it.”

Translated into “forever, excellent, treasure,” Eng Bee Tin rebranded hopia with a thin layer to re-introduce the product and make it marketable.

“We want to make Eng Bee Tin delicious, affordable and worth it for the customers,” Chua said. “Our hopia before, walang gustong bumili. ‘Pag binato mo sa pader, ‘pag bagsak, hopia pa rin na matigas. Our hopia before were in jars and they were sold in consignment. ‘Pag dating mo sa tindahan, ‘yung hopia piyaya na.”

In an effort to rebrand Eng Bee Tin, the senior Gerry Chua frequented the Ongpin Supermarket every afternoon without buying anything, to the point where he was suspected as a shoplifter then. 

“We came to a point where the business was really losing money,” Chua recalled. “My father was the one making the hopia, buying the ingredients, making the products and selling them.

“A day came when he asked the guy selling ice cream what’s the most popular flavor and he was told it was ube. It was as if someone whispered to him, ‘Try making hoping ube.’ He bought six jars of ube, made hopia and the rest was history.” 

Eng Bee Tin has been around for 112 years. Back in the '80s, there were only two flavors of hopia -- baboy and monggo.

“Today, there are 25 flavors of hopia,” beamed Chua. “We have hopia pandan, durian, langka, quezo and kundol, plus sugar-free hopia. Same taste, guilt-free. Very Filipino flavors and proudly Pinoy.

“In one year, we always come out with a new product or a new flavor. We know that customers also have a ‘sawa’ factor. This year, we came out with a limited edition choco-nut flavored hopia.”

That is the reason Eng Bee Tin decided to retrace and showcase the history of hopia by holding the first National Hopia Day, from July 19 to 21 at the Mall of Asia. There will be fun activities that will happen.

“We want to share the history of hopia in the Philippines,” Chua added. “We want to show what else we can do differently with hopia.”

Chua’s only sister and the youngest in the brood, Roche Geraldyn, shared that hopia was brought into the Philippines by Chinese immigrants. (Brother Royce Gerald is the second.) 

“We want to emphasize that hopia is a very Chinese product,” Geraldyn said. “But Eng Bee Tin being the first to come out with hopiang ube, a very Filipino root crop, it’s kind of a symbol of both cultures working together to create something sensational.

“Eng Bee Tin is a very proud local company. Every product is Filipino-made, but we are acknowledged worldwide. We export our products to 18 countries.

“Our target is to serve our fellow Filipinos across the world, so that when they eat hopia wherever they are, they are reminded of home.

“We have flavors not just ube, we have ube-langka, ube-quezo, ube-pastillas, macapuno, durian. We really bring flavors of the Philippines.”

Eng Bee Tin also came out with its custard series that’s like ice cream, ube and buko pie. “When you go to other countries and you buy our hopia, it’s like reminiscing that you eat buko pie like hopia,” Chua said.

To date, Eng Bee Tin has 50 branches all over Luzon, all family owned with no franchises. “Mostly are kiosks,” Chua said. “We have yet to branch out in the Visayas and Mindanao. 

“Our challenge is we use fresh ingredients for our products with short shelf life. To maintain the quality, we consider the distance that we maintain to supply all our branches.

“The farthest in Luzon is Batangas, while in the north, it’s Pampanga [San Fernando]. Soon, hopefully, we plan to bring Eng Bee Tin to Baguio.”

The Gen Zs have made a negative connotation, “na-hopia,” which means something unfortunate happened.

“This time, we focus on the good side,” Geraldyn said. “Recently, we’ve been giving away hopia and we noticed, when somebody received hopia, they became happy.

“Instead of the negative connotation, ‘na-hopia,’ why not make it into a positive one? Hopia makes everyone happy.”

On the first National Hopia Day on July 19 to 21, the Chuas lined up exciting activities, as well as fun and games.

“Since hopia is shared with family, we made a family fun day at SM Mall of Asia Music Hall,” Chua shared. “We will have a human claw machine, where the one on top of it can catch as many hopias as he can.

“We will also have a hopia sack race. We made the event three days so they will experience and participate in the National Hopia Day.”

“The National Hopia Day has been made into a three-day event because we want to show that Eng Bee Tin has been turned into a family brand,” Geraldyn added. 

The National Hopia Day has been conceptualized by the Chua family for three years now. “Since three years ago, we’ve been planning to hold the National Hopia Day, although we were not ready yet at that time,” Chua said.

After this year, however, Eng Bee Tin plans to hold National Hopia Day annually. “We will make it every year now,”  Chua said. “If there is a doughnut day, why not a hopia day? Although a Chinese product, hopia has become part of the Filipino culture.”