tcc - Funan Centre

The Coffee Concierge while picking up some BitDefender security software for his new Dell Vostro 1310 decided to check out the coffee joints in Funan and found tcc right at the main entrance.

The staff were highly efficient, friendly and attentive. The Coffee Concierge never had to do more than glance up to get attention from them. The Coffee Concierge ordered the usual expresso but unlike the service, it disappointed as it was clearly sour from start to end. No sweetness. It was bitter but not unpleasantly so. Had a thin crema which dissipated rapidly. Decent enough aftertaste which lingers. It did come with two tiny little cookies which were delightful.

The cafe was actually very nicely put together with a lot of attention paid to the decor and keeping it spiffy. The red comfy chairs were a nice touch. Overall, it's a very nice place to sit with a friend or work in. Too bad about the expresso.

Price: S$4.00
Service: 4 beans
Flavour: 1.5 beans

Coffee Club in Holland Village

No, no, no, those are not the Devil's Cupcakes though they sure are tempting with those white chocolate sticks. It's a rum and raisin chocolate truffle cake at the Coffee Club at Holland Village.

The Coffee Concierge decided to go to the birthplace of modern coffee culture in Singapore: the Coffee Club at Holland Village. This was the first modern coffeehouse to set up in the early 1990s. The owners were originally coffee traders so setting up this coffee house was a natural extension of their trade. Since then they've grown into a full blown retail chain with a number of cafes across Singapore.

The Coffee Concierge noted that while there were different beans of coffee on offer under the section labelled coffee with detailed descriptions of the kind of taste of the bean, the expresso section did not offer any such choice of beans. The Coffee Concierge found that a little strange, after all, since they have the beans ready stocked, they might as well just grind them for expresso as for a long black.

The expresso I ordered was a tad thin on the crema which desipated a little faster than it should. The coffee was mild and a little sweet on the first sip but on the second sip was distinctly sour when swirled around the mouth. I'd taken pains not to eat the sweet before tasting the coffee. There was a bitterness but only very slight so overall the Coffee Concierge thinks it could have been better and honestly, what *is* with all this sourness in Singapore coffee? The coffee concierge would have expected a bit better for S$4

The service however was polite and prompt and the barista herself came to serve me the expresso after the waitress came out with the rum and raisin chocolate truffle. The rum and raisin chocolate truffle tasted like a good chocolate mousse. The Coffee Concierge couldn't taste the rum or remember eating a raison but it was still a pleasing rich chocolate flavour.

Price: S$4 for a single expresso (with shortbread cookie on the side)
Flavour: 2.5 beans

J.Co Coffee and Doughnuts

Can you just see that glossy doughnut has my name on it? It didn't have to wait too long to get eaten by the Coffee Concierge. The Coffee Concierge has been a major fan of the J.Co on Batam where he goes every once in a few months to help out at a school on a nearby island called Rempang. But the Coffee Concierge was always in too much of a hurry there to just buy dozens of doughnuts and get on the ferry back to Singapore. Now however that they've opened a branch in Singapore (at Singapore prices of course), there's time to sample their expresso.

The verdict on the coffee: sour and sour. It tasted awfully familiar actually from something I've drunk before possibly at one of the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 booths. Now there was an actual coffee taste but the predominant note was sour from start to end. Not that much of an after taste or smell. Decent crema. In all, this Coffee Concierge says stick to their doughnuts especially the heaven berry one and the chocolate filled ones. There's a queue but it was moving pretty quickly along so don't be daunted by that.

Price: S$3.20 (comes with a glossy doughnut)
Service: 2.5 beans
Flavour: 1 bean

Starbucks - Holland Village

I know, I know, Starsucks and all that. But honestly, despite the worldwide flak for Starbucks, this Coffee Concierge still thinks they did the world a huge service by expanding the way they did across the USA and the rest of the world and particularly in the USA where coffee was pretty much like dishwater liquid a lot of the time, they did manage to help raise the bar quite a bit. However that was many years ago and since then Starbucks as a company needs to dig deep into its roots and re-discover its mission and be the coffeehouse on the corner where the barista knows and remembers your favourite brew.

So with all this baggage around, the Coffee Concierge decided to try the neighbourhood Starbucks at Holland Village. It turned out actually to be a better experience than I expected. The baristas and serving staff in general I suspect have recently undergone some retraining as they were certainly making a point of greeting, meeting eyes, and taking the order in a friendly polite way. And the staff did generally seem happy. The ambience is great there with lots of very nice sofas to lounge on and the staff kept the place pretty neat and tidy despite it being quite full.

The expresso? Strong and bitter with a long, lingering aftertaste. The crema was decently formed but not terribly thick and it stayed for a reasonable few minutes. I did find it quite hard to find words to describe the actual flavour. It was slightly but not very dark roast and had quite a bit of body to it but I'm hard put to actually say there were notes of fruit or anything else...just that it had a very strong coffee flavour. There wasn't a hint of sweetness at all which is a bit of a fault but overall not too bad.

Now this Coffee Concierge happens to like his coffee to have some bitterness but was not too sure if it would appeal to many Singaporeans since the national prediliction seems to be more for sweeter, milkier drinks on the whole. But it's certainly a coffee that would stand being mixed into milk based drinks.

Price: S$3.40
Flavour: 3.5 beans
Service: 4 beans

Barista Express at Clifford Centre

The Coffee Concierge was hanging around Clifford Centre waiting for a meeting and in the meantime popped down to check out the Barista Express cafe on the first floor of Clifford Centre. It's fairly basic cafe with lots of red decor and cheery, quick staff. However while it lives up to being express, the quality of the coffee is to match.

I ordered the standard expresso and it showed up with little crema that dissipated within 20 seconds and hardly any aroma. The taste was markedly sour whether hot or cooled down. It had a slightly burnt taste to it and while it did still have a reasonably strong coffee flavour with a long aftertaste, I can't say that it's one I enjoyed very much. 'nuff said.

Cost: S$2.20
Flavour: 1 bean

Torrefacto Roasts or Good Old Kopi Tiam Coffee

This coffee concierge has been getting very curious about roasts ever since a visit to the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 show in Singapore. This is because a casual conversation with a coffee vendor who shall remain unnamed for this post claimed that coffee beans/instant mixes etc and generally coffee sold in kopi tiams in Malaysia generally were 80% caramel and only 20% coffee beans with the exception of course of his particular brand. At which point the coffee concierge went, "oooohhhhh, now that's why my relatives can drink it late at night and still go to sleep." All this time we're really been drinking coffee *flavoured* drinks rather than coffee. A bit like eating milk chocolate rather than pure cocoa powder.

Now even if some exaggeration for a sales pitch is allowed for and say the number is more like 50-60%, that's still a distinctly lower coffee content. So I decided to go hunting around to see if I could dig up what "recipes" for roasting were actuall used in practice in SE Asia generally.

Guess what the coffee concierge found: the torrefacto roast. This is a method that's been used in parts of the world other than SE Asia from at least the 19th century from Spain. Torrados as they call such roasts can certainly be found in places like South America and Central America to this day. In general the main additive is sugar which carmalises and coats the bean. This can be as much as 50% (unless of course you take the FHA exhibitor's word for it at 80%). So it's not actually uncommon, just that it's not that well known by the consumer although it's sure a well known fact by the roasters and the retail owners.

So think about that the next time you take your usual cuppa at the kopi tiam: that rich mouthfeel is all caramel and that extra sugar you lump in only adds to the considerable quantity of sugar already in your coffee. Diabetics among you beware. No wonder a lot of the local taste buds can no longer adapt to purer blends as they would tend to be more watery by comparison and caffeine sensitive folk like me find taking even one cup sends me bouncing off the walls.

More anon on this subject in future posts as this is clearly a subject that merits further digging among the beans. And if any of my readers have anything to add to this, I'd dearly love to know so comment away dear reader.

Sleek Cafe

Recently the motherboard in my office laptop started failing so I ended up at Sim Lim Square having coffee while waiting for the computer technician to diagnose what was wrong. Naturally the Coffee Concierge looked around for the nearest coffee cafe and ended up in Sleek Cafe which is in the basement of Sim Lim Square near the food court. It's a rather nice spot and relatively uncrowded. With the wooden deck and dark wood furniture and sunlight coming in through the top end of the basement, it's reasonably pleasant to sit in. The coffee turned out better than expected. While the crema didn't exactly last long, the flavour of the expresso was actually sweet at first sip which is a first in all the cafes I've gone to so far in Singapore. (I don't add sugar in general.) The flavours were actually relatively well balanced and sourness only started to seep in when it was distinctly cooler. All in all, a decent enough cup. The cupcake this time definitely took a second place to the expresso as it was clearly made from an instant mix and the dollop of icing on top equally instant with a taste to match.

Sadly however I still haven't got my laptop back so I'll just have to pay this cafe another visit when I go to pick up a hopefully fixed computer.

Price: S$2.80
Rating: 3.5 beans
Service: 3 beans