Three siblings, one family recipe

In shortHalowow is a family-owned Filipino halo-halo brand founded in 2025 by siblings Aiby Jane, Aice Zel and Czearian Marc Maghinay in Taytay, Rizal. It serves five signature flavors, shaved and layered when you order, with no beans, and has grown to 16 branches across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

It started at the family table

Every Filipino family has its own halo-halo. In the Maghinay home it was the one mom made during summer: sweet corn instead of beans, ube halaya cooked the long way, saba simmered the same way every time, and a cream that made the whole glass smoother. Dad kept refining it for years.

When Aiby Jane, Aice Zel and Czearian Marc grew up, they noticed halo-halo everywhere had changed. Cups had gotten sweeter and louder, and most were made ahead. They wanted to serve it the way they remembered it, with the care they wished everyone could taste.

A small shop in Taytay, Rizal

In 2025 the siblings opened a small dessert shop in Taytay with a handful of handwritten recipes. They had no investors and no ad campaign, and they skipped the launch event. The family's dessert venture first ran as The E & Y Dessert Shop. The halo-halo did the marketing: neighbors came, then their friends, then people from other towns.

Customers kept saying the same word after the first spoonful. That is how the shop got its name: halo-halo + wow = Halowow.

"We wanted to make halo-halo the way we remembered it, with the care we wish everyone could experience."
The Maghinay siblings

Why the recipe works

Halowow is about restraint. Every cup is made to order. The ube is never dyed, the shaved ice is a secret family recipe, and we leave out beans, candy-colored syrups and cereal fillers. Our premium signature ice and our signature cream, a custard cream the family makes by hand, are what make a Halowow taste like a Halowow.

From one shop to 16 branches

Within a year, students and families from well beyond Taytay were asking for a Halowow near them, and franchise inquiries arrived from across the Philippines and abroad. The family chose to grow carefully, with partners who share their standards. Today Halowow has 16 branches across Rizal, Metro Manila, Benguet, the Visayas and Mindanao, and the family still sets the standard at each one.