You've been to McDonald's, you're familiar with Wendy's, and you obsess over In-N-Out
Burger. But if you're like most Americans, you've never been to Jollibee, the Filipino
fast food chain that is rapidly expanding across the globe. Here's everything you need
to know about Jollibee.
In 1975, Tony Tan Caktiong was a recent civil engineering graduate who invested his family's
life savings to get into the ice cream business. After a tour of a Magnolia Ice Cream factory,
Tan Caktiong was inspired to change careers, and he set up a franchise deal with Magnolia
Dairy.
Tan Caktiong opened two ice cream stands. He added sandwiches and hot items to the menu
to respond to customer demand. The non-ice cream items quickly became the most popular
items on the menu. In 1978, Tan Caktiong decided to get out of the ice cream franchise business,
and Jollibee was born.
While Jollibee has been able to expand worldwide, Magnolia Ice Cream, one of the most recognizable
brands in the Philippines and the oldest Asian ice cream company, is not able to sell its
products in the United States due to a legal dispute with a copycat company also called
Magnolia Ice Cream. So In the United States, the Magnolia Ice Cream spots you see aren't
the same as the one with ties to Jollibee.
In 1981, just a few years after the first Jollibee opened, McDonald's arrived in the
Philippines. Tony Tan Caktiong was told that he had two choices: sell Jollibee to McDonald's,
or become a McDonald's franchise. Tan Caktiong decided that he would rather fight McDonald's.
He traveled to the United States to study McDonald's, and they realized that McDonald's
had them beat in every way, with one notable exception: taste. McDonald's appeals to an
American palate, while Jollibee's is more suited to Filipinos' tastes. The Filipino
chain now controls more of the market in Manila than their international competitors.
Jollibee's success in fighting back against an international mega corporation like McDonald's
is a Filipino success story often held up in business school classrooms in the Philippines
as a point of national pride.
When Jollibee realized that they would need to compete with large international corporations
with slick branding and marketing, they gave the company a smart makeover, starting with
the name.
The name "Jollibee" suggests a happy and genial bumblebee, so the company used just that as
their logo. The dapper mascot, also known as Juicy J, wears a chef's hat, a tuxedo jacket,
and a big smile.
The Jollibee logo was designed with influences from Mickey Mouse, comic books, and Ronald
McDonald. A bee was chosen as the logo both because they're hard workers, and due to their
association with honey, a symbol for the sweeter things in life. Tony Tan Caktiong reportedly
thought of the bee as representing the Filipino people: hard-working, good-hearted, busy,
and cheerful.
The Yumburger came about after Tony Tan Caktiong noticed that people would line up for burgers
more than they would for ice cream. The Yumburger was Jollibee's first signature product, and
for a while, Jollibee locations went by the name of "Jollibee Yumburger."
"Yumburger! 100% beefy, langhap-sarap."
"Jollibee Yumburger!"
In addition to the Yumburger, Jollibee also sells the Burger Steak, which is similar to
a Salisbury steak. The Burger Steak features fried hamburger patties that are smothered
in mushroom gravy, served with a side of rice or mashed potatoes.
While some Jollibee menu items use regular ketchup, they are well-known for their banana
ketchup spaghetti. That's right, banana ketchup, on spaghetti. It's hearty comfort food, and
thanks to the banana ketchup, it's also quite sweet. Banana ketchup isn't really ketchup,
but rather a clever substitute for tomato ketchup.
The people in the Philippines were introduced to tomato ketchup by traveling Americans,
but the area didn't have many tomatoes on its own with which to replicate the recipe.
Enterprising Filipinos instead mixed bananas, vinegar, and sugar to create a ketchup stand-in,
which was then dyed red.
Jollibee's spaghetti, known as Jolly Spaghetti, consists of noodles, ground meat, sliced hot
dogs, banana ketchup, and cheese. Banana ketchup spaghetti, or Filipino spaghetti, is a staple
party food in the Philippines. Jollibee didn't invent it, but their version set the standard
for a cheap and widely available version of it.
The McDonald's version of the fast food dish, known by the unwieldy name of "McSpaghetti",
bombed in the United States, but you can still find it in the Philippines.
Jollibee's hand-breaded fried chicken, known as Chickenjoy, is one of the chain's most
popular offerings. While Americans might not associate fried chicken with spaghetti, the
Jollibee Chickenjoy and spaghetti combo is classic Filipino comfort food.
The Chickenjoy marinade is a trade secret. Every order of chicken comes with a side of
gravy, regardless of whether or not you choose to order rice or potatoes. Jollibee also serves
a spicy Chickenjoy, and chicken dippers, which are smaller pieces of boneless fried chicken
tenders.
Jollibee has their own version of the traditional Filipino dessert called halo-halo, which is
essentially shaved ice, sweetened beans, fruit and condensed milk. Jollibee's halo-halo is
also topped with a piece of flan and a scoop of ice cream.
The ice cream that Jollibee uses and is found in most halo-halo is bright purple, and that
color comes from ube, a purple sweet potato. Ube is a staple ingredient in the Philippines,
while Ube desserts have recently exploded in popularity. Instagram has thousands of
pictures of bright purple cookies, cupcakes, and ice cream under the ube hashtag.
Jollibee's breakfast menu is called by the delightful name of "Breakfast Joys." All of
Jollibee's breakfast items come with seasoned rice and a fried egg. They serve tapa, which
are beef tenders, tocino, which is sweet pork, and longanisa, which is pork sausage, and
corned beef.
Just like the famous tuna pie, there are some Jollibee breakfast favorites that are not
available in North America. Jollibee sells a pretty standard fast food breakfast sandwich
in the Philippines, but they also serve a pancake sandwich. The best-selling pancake
sandwich features a fried egg, bacon, and cheese, served in between two pancakes.
"It's good."
While the vast majority of Jollibee franchises are located within the Philippines, the company
has branched out into the North American, South East Asian, and European markets. The
company's strategy has focused on marketing to Filipino workers abroad.
When a new Jollibee location opens in the US, enthusiastic fans have lined up outside
for hours waiting to get their coveted Chickenjoy or Jolly Spaghetti. When Jollibee opened a
Tampa location in January 2020, ardent fans of the chain, many of them Filipino or Filipino-American,
lined up starting at 4:30 a.m., finally entering the store to confetti and cheers hours later
at 9 o'clock.
Tampa is Jollibee's second Florida location. The company's first Florida location, in Jacksonville,
served 3,000 customers on its opening day in 2017. And that's just the start. Jollibee
plans to open 150 locations in the US and 100 in Canada by 2023 So if you're one of
the many people who have never gotten to enjoy the restaurant's food before, don't worry.
You'll get your chance.
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