Luckin Coffee Available at NTUC

 I was somewhat surprised to see Luckin Coffee beind sold at NTUC. Heh nope not the normal version at the Luckin shops, but rather the different instant mix version. Even the Coconut flavour version (I thought unique and seasonal?) is available - per box of 9 cups being sold at $10.90 (discounted from $11.90). Not a bad thing but I wouldnt feel that uniqueness (or should I say experience) of getting a Luckin coffee via such an instant mix isnt it?

Luckin Coffee Coconut at NTUC

I can understand why Starbucks x Nespresso capsules work for some (me included) because all you want is a traditional coffee made quickly at home, i.e. an instant "cappuccino". Whereas the Luckin coffee experience is a different one - one order from their app prior to reaching the store with different vouchers to offset the price plus getting some varied flavour of the month. The latter would not be offered via a box of instant mix.

Oh well, who knows, maybe there are as many varied coffee drinkers with different preferences who might like it. Besides Coconut flavour, the mix traditional black coffee version is also available at $9.90 for 8 cups. Nope I didnt buy either - would still buy from their shop instead.

Luckin Instant Black Coffee

I think normal grocery food items being packaged with known brands is a thing - so while I was looking for that Demon Hunter Instant Ramen (not available yet), I came across this macadamia mixnuts with the Netflix brand instead. Maybe give them, i.e. Netflix, another month or so to get that spicy ramen flavours in all three versions right, and we would see them in stores all over. Heh with likes of Saja Boys' Your Idol topping the US charts, I think the related KPop Demon Hunter merchandise should be something made widely available soon.

NTUC Netflix Macadamia Mixnuts

Luckin Coffee Payday Best Day Promo

I'm starting to be a Luckin Coffee fan due to the many promotions that they have been running. Just had their Payday Best Day promo today with 2 cups of coffee at $8. Quite a good deal actually. Had an Yirgacheffe Latte (1 of their Black Cup series, i.e. special coffee) the other day, and tried an iced caramel macchiato on Friday. And yup I've already used that $0.99 promo previously. :)

They have many vouchers so honestly each cup of coffee is not expensive. Heh I can't get a kopi-o at $0.99 easily in town.

Yirgacheffe Latte from Luckin

Caramel Macchiato

Considering the many varieties of coffee that they are offering, I would get to try different flavours and not get bored. This month it is the Iced Minty Coconut Latte but nope I didn't try that. I might do that over this weekend if I "run into" another Lukcin Coffee outlet. lol. Other than the varieties, the ease of ordering (before you reach that outlet) with a pick up, scan and go, makes it really convenient for those in a hurry. 

I like the non-coffee stuff that Luckin Coffee is offering too. The strawberry Daifuku is nice and soft, just a bit small - one mouthful type of treats. Oh well that is at least something to go with the coffee. 

With as many as like 60 outlets in Singapore, I guess Luckin is doing well here. Nope I am not paid in any way by them, but yup I would continue to use their promo vouchers. heh.

Strawberry Daifuku

Amazing Starbucks at Home Capsule Sales for Black Friday

Black Friday sale is often a time to buy coffee related items, including capsules that I used for my Nespresso machine. I usually hunt for the coffee capsules on Lazada and of course this means getting all the vouchers and planning the purchase process. 

The purchase was quite seamless, and I'm amazed at how fast the capsules arrived at my place. As usual, we would add the different combinations and such to the cart by Thursday evening. Straight after mid-night, and entering the actual Black Friday itself, I selected and cart out the purchase within 30mins, i.e. 1230am 24th Nov. Below is a pic of my selection that included the seasonal special of Starbucks' Toffee Nut.

Selection of Package on Lazada.

Amazingly I received my package this evening (Saturday evening), i.e. a short span of less than 2 days  (including a Saturday) from placing the order around 1230am Friday to the receipt of the package by Saturday evening! With the different discounts and such (price above was before vouchers discount), I've paid only $74.89. This worked out to be $6.24 per tube of 10 capsules, which is way cheaper than usual price at marts.

Starbucks Coffee Capsules & Mugs

Above is the picture of the package, nicely packed and with the 2 freebies of Starbucks Festive Mugs. I will try the Toffee Nut selection by tonight and see how it goes. The packers are quite careful with the fragile mugs, and they were actually wrapped tightly in bubble wraps. See the picture below.

Starbucks Festive Mug

Breakfast @ Cheng San market - Bee Hoon (和發) & Coffee (天天茶室)

Many moons ago, it was during one of the rare occasions that I had a weekday morning off and I decided to pop by the Cheng San market for breakfast. The Cheng San market is located at Blk 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, quite accessible if you drive and exit from CTE AMK Ave 5 exit.

I tried the 'Fried Sotong Bee Hoon' from Hwa Huat 和發 (because 1 key aim of visiting the Cheng San market is to try the coffee next door) and I was pleasantly surprised by how good and cheap the bee hoon is. The uncle would fry the bee hoon on the stop, i.e. hot delicious breakfast instead of pre-cooked portions. I added a Soon Kueh just to top my breakfast quota. 

 

和發

Of course for coffee I had the kopi from Everyday Tea Stall - 天天茶室. They were featured in the TV programme before, where the uncle (seen in the photo below) was commenting that he suffered from backaches due to long hours of making coffee. Nonetheless his coffee is damn good (for hawker fare) and there are often queues. 1 chap who was being interviewed even said that he would buy extra to keep in the fridge, so that he could enjoy the coffee when he couldn't come to the Cheng San market to buy from 天天茶室. Being a typical hawker fare, the mug is just a nice flower-design mug, i.e. not those nostalgic looking cups from the more famous kopi chains.

天天茶室

天天茶室 Uncle

天天茶室 Kopi 

So for those who have the morning off, and would like to try out good local hawker fare, drop by Cheng San market for a little culinary adventure. :)

MacDonald's 'O'spicious Orange Latte - 吉

Yupz the local Mc Cafe has rolled out the 'O'spicious orange Latte to welcome the Lunar new Year. Hmm basically it is orange flavoured latte with a 吉 made from orange powder.

They also served orange frappe ($5.20) and orange hot chocolate ($5.40). I tried the orange latte of course ($4.90).

After the person poured in the milk foam, they just put a metal shaped mold and poured in the orange powder. I've taken a picture of the metal shaped mold (shown below).

So the end result is a latte with a '吉' character. Depending on the skill of the person, the '吉' character may not come out nicely. Taste wise it is so-so. It is more for adding to the mood of this season than for the taste of the beverage. I would rather they pour in some real fresh orange juice together with the coffee. I had such concoction before and it tasted real good actually.

Traditional Coffee in Milk Cans

Not sure if anyone still order 'take-away' kopi in such cans, but I'm sure we remember these 'cans' kopi from earlier days. Those were the days when styrofoam cups were uncommon, and coffeeshops re-used the milk can to make kopi (it also make use of the last bits of milk in the cans!). Somehow coffee served in such cans taste better than those in styrofoam cups.

I ordered one such kopi today, and the coffeeshop auntie actually smiled when i said 'kopi - kong' (kong is hokkien for can). Anyway, the design is quite ingenious because the whole can is held intact by the slight dent at the can opening, such that the 'cover' is locked safely. To open the can of coffee, one only needs to press the side of the can slightly, and the 'cover' would spring up.

So next time try a 'can' of such coffee, and see if you like it.

Afternote: This post was 'yesterday'ed'!

Coffee: Ya Kun, San Francisco, McCafe, & Nescafe

There are many types of coffee available in Singapore. We have the

• traditional kopitiam (not the food court) type of kopi, e.g. Ya Kun,
  
• western style barista coffee, e.g. San Francisco,
• fast food with barista type of coffee, e.g. McCafe, and
  
• of course the instant coffee, e.g. Nescafe
  

I drink all of them during different times of the day.

Ya Kun kopi (kopi = hokkien for coffee) is the best 1st coffee of the day, as it is thick and filled with sugar / milk that gives you a sufficiently good kick to start the day. If you can have toast along with it, the feeling is wonderful. We had a few demonstrations of bread toasting with Ya Kun kopi when we hosted an international event.

San Francisco type of coffee is to be had, when you have the time to savour the complex and rich flavour of well prepared coffee. For this category of coffee, I think San Francisco is among the best. I used to buy San Francisco coffee as my 'first cup of the day', but realised that it is a waste to gulp down such coffee so fast in the morning.

Fast Food style coffee is ideal for a group of people setting, since others could order non-caffeine drinks (e.g. orange juice) or a different version of the caffeine 'poison' (e.g. coke) if they so desire. McCafe coffee is actually quite value for money.

The last but not least is the instant coffee, and we have the Nescafe! Nescafe, mixed with those 'expresso' from office coffee machines, would give a sufficiently rich and complex flavour that is quite acceptable. Otherwise having just Nescafe is not as great. Of course, we could add condensed milk and it would taste....alright. Lolz, there are different grades of Nescafe coffee, and some are pretty acceptable. Heh, all coffees are great, since they have anti-oxidants! We should all drink more coffee!

Related Posts:
- Coffee Barista Course @ Highlander Part 1
- Coffee Barista Course @ Highlander Part 2
- Coffee Protects You Against Many Things

Coffee protects you against many many things!

Muaa haa haa *very evil grin*

Just read this article on BBC News that

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests. The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, ... UK experts said it was the "best evidence yet" of coffee's benefits.

Heh now I know why my cholesterol level is at such a healthy level.... it's the 3 cups of coffee that I drink per day! Woo hoo! Coffee stops dementia, block cholesterol's damage on the body, and stops Alzheimer. Such a Wonder Drink isn't it?

Hmm and now that I tried TCC's Cocoa Sunrise, maybe I can make my own, i.e. coffee with fresh orange juice. It taste quite good actually (the TCC version). Caffeine, Vit C, fruits, wonder drugs...all in one. :p

Coffee Barista Course @ Highlander - Part 2

Heh here's part 2 of the barista training course! Let me describe a bit about the training course details. We were given a training manual and on day 2, asked to sit for a simple 18 questions test. The test basically reinforces the idea about how we should grind the beans, i.e. how fine or coarse should the grind be. This depends largely on the trial and error when we look at how the thick thick coffee flows from the machine. Here's how the machine looks like. The grinder is the standalone device next to the metal expresso machine.


Oh, and I learnt that brewed coffee has more caffeine compared to those from the expresso shots machine cos' of the contact time of water with the coffee powder. The powder that we put into the portafilter will only have limited crucial amount of time with the high pressure water to extract the nice part of the coffee from the coffee powder. Here's how the portafilter looks like:


We also learnt about the varieties of coffee, and the characteristics of the coffee from the different countries. We did some cupping on day 2, and I think I still like coffee from Brazil and Sumatra best. Guess next time when I step into a cafe, I'll better aprpeciate the different blends of coffee. I got a cert from the course! So now I can apply to work for those coffee houses... heh heh heh.


Above are the small bowls filled with hot water, and allowed to 'stew' for a while before we do the cupping.


For those who are not going to the course, no worries, you could learn quite a fair bit from watching the Channel U clip below. Heh the trainer in the clip is Cedric, and the other trainer for the course (not shown in the clip) is Phil. Unlike in the clip, we didn't get to 'roast' coffee though, cos' I suppose the time is a bit too short to try that.

They also offer other simpler courses on how to appreciate coffee, qutie useful if you are looking to organise some corporate employee half day courses of about $20-40 per pax budget.

Coffee Barista Course @ Highlander - Part 1

Some weeks back I was talking about the different coffee latte arts and asking around for a course. I found it! Lolz. I found the coffee barista course, and signed up for it. I spent two days (actually it's one afternoon and 1 morning) at the Highlander Cafe learning about the different skills of being a barista.

Hmm the trainers are quite good, and since the class of 6 is small, we have plenty of practices. The course cots $298, and includes some details of the cost of operating a cafe. Will be interesting for those who inspire to own cafes. First day we learnt about how to steam the milk, and make expresso / cuppacino / latte. The second day we spent some time practising, and did some cupping.

A classmate made this and in the next picture, he was trying to 'etch' a design on the coffee. The milk was steamed by me, and apparently the bubbles were a bit too big, thus the etchings were not as great.




This is the latte 'art' from me:


My classmate is more interested in making the latte art (I'm interested in the drinking part), and he accidentally created this 'Squidward' lookalike from the SpongeBob cartoon. Really looks like Squidward??



Cos' this post is getting a bit long, I'll break it into two parts. Part 2 coming shortly.

Cup of coffee and arts

Heh, recently I had coffee at more places and realised that the coffee barista would create nice patterns on the foam of the coffee. This is not something new, but just didn't expect to be served such a cup of nice 'arty' coffee when ordering coffee here.

Had my first 'arty' coffee at Sunctec's Crosstalk Cafe. Not bad, since I didn't expect to have such 'arty' cafe served at this busy cafe outlet.

Then I tried the coffee at the new Suntec Gloria Jeans, and the barista also created a nice 'arty' pattern on the latte foam. Seems like Gloria Jeans did some competition for such 'coffee arts' some time back.

The two patterns look similar hor? lolz... I saw others with a 'leaf' or 'heart' shaped patterns. Wonder where could I learn such means of making 'coffee art'? I heard sometime back some folks were trying to open a coffee school locally, but couldn't find the news article. Found this Youtube clip instead:



Heh... speaking of coffee... I just bought coffee from the traditional grinders. Of course, I haven't found the best way of making the coffee... still learning, but it does taste better than the instant mix type...

Free Organiser from The Coffee Connoisseur

Heh reached home today and I saw a mini-package from The Coffee Connoisseur aka TCC. Though I have their card, but I didn't really spend that much on TCC, and so am quite pleasantly surprised to receive 'customer gifts' from them. Last year they gave some postcards... and when I saw the package I thought it's another big stack of postcards!

Then I opened it up and saw this... quite nice hor? But I still don't know what is inside... and so gotta unpack it one more time...

and here's it!

Heh it's not difficult to be their member... just spend an accumulated amount of $88 and filled in the form to be one. I dunno why $88... gotta ask their boss bah... used to visit TCC quite often but didn't really have much chance recently though... heh wonder what wld they give next year... hmm.