Caffeine Cravings

I’m honestly pretty blessed to be working in close proximity to Fortune Centre. I’ve got a fair few good food options, and Cookie & Coffee. Admittedly, Cookie & Coffee’s coffee is about average, but who cares when every cuppa comes with a free cookie? That’s right, buy a cuppa, get a free cookie to sweeten the deal! The cookies are buttery, crumbly and satisfyingly sweet, with lots of choc chips studded throughout and some oats for a little extra crisp. Better yet, these cookies are served warm, so you get warm cookies & hot coffee. Mmm.⠀
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If you’re looking for an icy indulgence, Cookie & Coffee do affogatos with your choice of ten Haagen-Das ice creams. And just like with all the other coffees, every order of affogato comes with a warm cookie. Talk about double decadence! If those cookies catch your fancy, Cookie & Coffee do sell them by their lonesome. I’m not suggesting anything, I’m just saying…

So…what if I told you that you could slam TWO one-for-one #burpplebeyond deals at the same time at @artbox_singapore? That’s right, the Burpple Food Street at Artbox 2023 has NINE merchants for you to put them one-for-one deals to work at. I found myself unable to resist @newdelibakes alluring Triple Chocolate Swirl ($7.50) and of course I had to wash it down with a drink, and @hook_coffee just happened to have their Artbox exclusive Cloud Velvet ($10) as their Burpple Beyond deal.⠀
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The Cloud Velvet was a very aesthetically appealing combo of iced chocolate & red velvet, adorned with a cloud of cotton candy at the top. Contrary to what you’d expect, this drink was not an over the top glucose bomb, but instead nicely sweet while allowing you to taste the rich cocoa flavours along with the luscious, unmistakable red velvet notes.⠀
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Even though the Salted Caramel Latte ($8) wasn’t part of the 1-for-1, I’d certainly advocate for you trying it. The comforting, slightly bitter coffee notes are well countered by the salt & sweetness of the caramel. Plus, you get some popcorn to nibble on.⠀
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Thanks for jio-ing me, @burpple!

As weird as it sounds I’ll actually miss drinking coffees in cafés. Yes I know takeaway coffee has been an actual thing since the first boomer was born, but pounding down coffees in the office (apparently pounding down hard liquor in the office is strictly verboten) is a far cry from savouring a cuppa in a café. Especially when said coffee is an iced mocha from @alchemist.sg.⠀
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Their proprietary Dark Matter blend is probably the best coffee blend I’ve had in Singapore and some say JB. Intensely chocolatey, silky smooth and a dummy THICC a-uh, I meant to say body, this beaut of a brew is definitely one to savour and cherish. Yes, this coffee turns me on, I’m Mr Coffee with an automatic drip.

If y’all didn’t already know, @alchemist.sg has opened its newest outlet at Gotham City, a mere stone’s throw away from my sweatshop. To go with the gothic architecture of the building, the seating area of the café is also done up in the gothic style, while the counter & brewing area is in the more familiar brutalist style that Alchemist usually does.

Not gonna lie, ever since being eternally spoiled by Australian coffees, I only really found one (now defunct) coffee joint that could even approach that high standard. However, Alchemist might be the first to achieve parity in quality with the fabled ‘strayan café cuppas. I got an iced mocha ($6.50) that was brewed using their proprietary bean blend called Dark Matter. This all Brazilian beauty is mildly acidic but intensely chocolatey, slightly nutty with a little sweet aftertaste. In other words, Alchemist’s mocha is probably the best damn mocha I’ve had in Singapore. ⠀
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It’s a beyond perfect pick me up, and I foresee myself regularly dumping a fair chunk of cash at these amazing caffeine alchemists in the future.

Not gonna lie folks, I was legitimately hoping that Goodness of Thirst, which is three days old at time of writing, was a pub stall with beers on tap. Boy was I disappointed when I discovered that all they poured up was coffee.

However, they do have a mocha float ($4 nett), which does ameliorate the situation. It is brewed from arabica beans and is rather mild and slightly acidic. The coffee is paired with some dark chocolate and finished off with a sizeable scoop of ice cream floating on top of this here cuppa caffeine, resulting in a midday wake up call & dessert rolled into one.

It ain’t great, but it ain’t bad either. It’s pretty inoffensive overall.

Refuel II’s Iced Caramel Latte ($5.90 nett, $6.90 for the big ‘un) sounds delightful, but it just ain’t quite all it’s hyped up to be in real life.

Like the title suggests, it’s more milk than coffee, and it got pretty diluted at the end thanks to all that ice floating around in there, which sank the latte just like its bigger icy brethren did to the Titanic years earlier. Not sure why close to no cafés are doing the whole frozen coffee cubes idea instead of ice, but oh well.

On the bright side, the caramel flavour was pretty damn delightful. Plus, it managed to keep me awake at work till it was time for beer, so that’s definitely gotta count for something.

While the search for a cuppa comparable to Aussie coffees still continues, Carrara ain’t half bad. The cappuccino is a little more bitter than usual, but it’s offset with a stronger cocoa scent and taste. Pretty creamy and tantalizingly thick in body too.

Not half bad as a posh(er) pick me up, really.

To this day, all of Singapore’s self proclaimed top tier coffees have been a beautiful letdown. Good coffee? Probably. On the same level as Aussie coffees? Yeah, nah mate.

However, The Hangar is quite possibly the closest any café in sunny Singapore has come to brewing up a cuppa that could go toe to toe with astoundingly amazing Aussie coffee. Their cappuccino is lightly and delightfully toasty, mildly bitter, and has a luxuriously thick body and creamy mouthfeel.

It’s truly no mean feat to even come close to the standard of coffee down under, so congratulations are definitely in order to the Hangar for reliably pouring up beautiful brews for the last half decade or so.

A depresso. Oh yes, that was quite the howler indeed! But trust me, coffee will turn depression into jubilation. I don’t quite know what it is about Australian coffee, but it is quite simply superior to many others. Could it be the milk? Or is it something in the water? I doubt we’ll ever find out, but in the meantime, I’m just going to down as many coffees as I can while I ponder upon the reason(s) why.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need some time alone with this stellar cuppa cappuccino.

Young man, there’s no need to feel down. That’s what I said to myself when I took a hearty sip of The Village’s heavenly Viennese coffee.

Until this day, I still have absolutely no clue as to just exactly what makes the coffee served in every Australian café absolutely awesome, but all I really cared about as I held that comely cuppa coffee in my hands was getting another hit of that coffee.

The Village’s Viennese coffee is utterly mesmerizing. Smooth, roasty black coffee is made even better by the mountain of fresh whipped cream sitting atop.

This Village raised this kid just right with this magical cuppa.

The last place you’d expect to find solid coffee that can rival even Australia’s legendary cuppas is in a hole in the wall in Tanjong Pagar Xchange right above Tanjong Pagar MRT, but that’s exactly what I found at The Caffeine Experience.

In the interest of full disclosure, my good friend from my army days is a (temporary) barista there, and he brewed up a selection of coffees for me to try after accepting my challenge that truly stellar coffees in Singaporean cafes were impossible to find.

This cup contains the wildest ride you’ll have this week: it’s a black pepper and honey latte. You heard that right. Black. Pepper. Honey. Latte. Now now, put down those pitchforks and torches first folks, let me explain the method behind his madness.

Honey binds well with black pepper, but that combo requires an extremely delicate balance of coffee and pepper. Not only that, but the beans used must have a very specific flavor profile. It took my pal a long time to figure it all out, but he finally did. The right amount of black pepper is added into the coffee grind, ground fresh from Costa Rican beans, and is then brewed up before the honey and milk foam are added.

The pepper contributes a nice, controlled spiciness into the fruity and acidic latte and tempers the acidity of the coffee rather suitably. The honey sweetens the latte better than any caramel syrup or raw sugar ever could, and serves to lift the body a little lighter than normal.

Needless to say, I was enjoying every single sip and second of this wild coffee ride.

I swear, every single cuppa joe in Australia is absolutely brilliant.

But I like the Oily George’s dirty chai more. Seductively sweet, silky smooth, downright delicious, and guaranteed to wake you right up, it’s a chai worth getting dirty for.