river coffee & bakes

Have been visiting Nicher for quite a while now on and off at The Brooks that is a walk away from Springleaf MRT Station along the Thomson-East Coast Line — these folks had recently been through a little bit of a revamp with the introduction of a refreshed line-up of danishes and pastries in recent times, and the brand has also been renamed as river by nicher (its Google Maps location is named river coffee & bakes). Whilst much of its faces and interior still stays the same, there are some small details that are added by the folks of river by nicher into the space for its new identity. That being said, the biggest change here would still be in the line-up of its offerings which bears a completely different look from the times when they were known as Nicher — some of its bakes interestingly coming in formats with different sizes such as the Regular, Mini and Petite.

One of the pastries that comes in Regular, Mini and Petite sizes would be the Double Choc Croclair — it is noted that the Petite is half the size of a Regular, while the Mini is sized half the size of a Petite and is only sold in bundles of three (3) pieces. The Double Choc Croclair is a bit of a hybrid of a croissant and an eclair — thus the namesake “Croclair”; it does follow the style of a Pain au Chocolate with chocolate stuffed in the middle. Considering how the Double Choc Croclair is supposed to be something in between that of a croissant and an eclair, the pastry is actually incredibly light — very crisp without feeling particularly bread-y as it would be even in a croissant. Dusted with icing sugar, the icing sugar does give a bit of a contrast of sweetness though it is the chocolate stuffed in between the pastry that really gives the chocolate-y sweetness one would expect with the pastry — really liked the contrast of textures where the chocolate is a little molten with the warm pastry when these are eaten whilst still warm.