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Great Drinks and the Places We Drink Them Daily.

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Great Drinks and the Places We Drink Them Daily.

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Singapore

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Normal cafe menus feature black coffee (espresso-based drinks and pour overs) and white coffee (milk-based coffees), but Tiong Bahru Bakery in Singapore does a deep dive. Their graphic display features not only coffee but also tea options and their signature drinks. The whole thing is creatively illustrated with different lines, shapes, and colors to represent different ingredients inside each drink. When we’re able to visit, our default order is the flat white—mainly because of the blend they get from Common Man Roastery (which is a fantastic match with their buttery pastries). But if you’re able to frequent Tiong Bahru, be sure to explore their wealth of options.

It’s butter heaven. Definitely one of the best bakeries in the world. Nobody does a Kouign-amann this well. The pastry is similar to a croissant, made in a spiral shape with tons of butter, and baked with sugar on top, which caramelizes the butter inside. It pairs perfectly with a flat white latte, because the silkiness compliments the buttery sweetness. Some people make it a point to go to the original Tiong Bahru Bakery in Orchard Road but this is much more comfortable, inside Raffles City in Singapore and the quality is equal, if not better in this branch.

Follow @tiongbahrubakery on Instagram.

Taiwan

East End

East End is a proper lounge hidden inside Hotel Proverbs, situated in a fancy part of town in Taipei. It’s dripping with cozy vibes, making it an excellent bar for an intimate night out.

There’s a minimum order, so expect to drop a pretty penny. The aesthetic of the bar is refined and spacious and their choice of furniture is fitting for a fancy hotel bar, with underlit counters, silver-plated walls, copper-fitted lamps, and a well-lit back bar wall, resulting in an overall classically sleek look. It’s a highly-rated place, with the collaborative minds of big names in the cocktail industry curating the overall concept, including Nick Wu of Bar Mood in Taipei and Hidetsugu Ueno of Bar High Five in Tokyo. By focusing on service and luxury paired with an outstanding sense of design, they’ve both managed to make East End a familiar name in different top bar lists in Taipei and around Asia.

Follow @eastendbar on Instagram.

Hongkong

NOC Coffee Co.

Confidence. Cleanliness. Zero identity issues. Those are the thoughts one has when walking into NOC’s headquarters and roastery in Sai Ying Pun. It’s almost like the closest thing you’d get if they turned the Apple Store a coffee shop. That’s a good thing. Design culture is alive and well here in NOC. Have a pour over and browse their retail shelves, which are also very carefully curated. We absolutely adore their collaboration lines with Umbra and Loveramics.

The morning crowd gets an especially good deal here, with a medium latte and anything inside their pastry display available for only 50 HKD total. Hong Kong is notoriously expensive, so it’s a huge bargain. We opted to get a large and fluffy orange pancake and drink that normally cost 88 HKD for nearly half the price. Definitely something worth picking up on your way to the train station before the daily grind starts

NOC’s menu also features drinks that are not your typical coffee fare, like the Fizzpresso, which is made with a shot of espresso, lemon juice, tonic water, and finished with a fresh slice of passionfruit. It’s got a pleasantly sour but refreshing taste, with a subtle fruity note. There’s also a bit of texture coming from the little seeds of the passionfruit. Definitely pick this up instead of a soda if you like the healthy stuff. NOC is consistently adventurous, making us wonder what’s behind their process of creating drinks. How many other things have they tried before landing on a drink with this many ingredients and these many textures? A lot of places come up with edgy, creative drinks that end up in competitions but usually don’t find their way to service. Here, they’re pushing to make signature drinks that are tasty enough to be ordered on a daily basis.

Follow @noccoffeeco on Instagram.

Manila Philippines

Narrative

Cafes that heavily focus on slow brewing are not so common. The urban lifestyle is typically fast-paced, so it’s natural that coffee shops be compelled to match that speed. All the more reason to admire Narrative Coffee Company and their efforts to create a space where guests are unhurried and able to savor conversations.

Since day one, they’ve successfully been operating as a slow bar, brewing every drink thoughtfully by hand. Even if though they recently acquired an espresso machine, they make sure to provide customers with the same experience. Having this set up in the lobby of an office building in of one of the busiest parts of Manila allows for people—mostly professionals and corporate workers—to push the pause button, take a breath, and enjoy a moment before jumping back into the grind.

It is a brave move and an excellent culture that we believe should spread.

Follow @narrativecoffeeph on Instagram.

Taiwan

The Tender Land

The Tender Land in Taipei has an incredibly unique and peaceful lounge vibe with modern interiors, the majority of their seating stretched along the wide bar. It’s the type of place other bartenders frequent to get drinks after their own shifts because it closes at a later time compared to most bars in the city. Even deep into the night the train keeps running and they stay on track, serving drink after precise drink.

Tender Land is a very quiet bar (a plus since it’s situated in a residential area) making it the perfect spot to wind down and end your day with a proper nightcap. It’s a haven for everyone who knows about it, whether they’re in the beverage industry or not. They also have incredible food inspired by Taiwanese dishes, and like most serious cocktail bars in the country, their respect for the local culture is evident in both the style of service and choice of ingredients. Before you know it, it’ll be 5 a.m. and you couldn’t be happier about it.

Hanging from a carefully designed meat hook hanger system, The Tender Land’s library of liquor and spirits is a beautiful centerpiece to this brutally and beautifully minimalist cocktail bar. Also incredible is the small plates of traditional Taiwanese snacks, such as sesame noodles that you can order with your fine cocktail. And it’s awesomely open until the wee hours of the Taipei morning.

Follow @thetenderland_taipei on Instagram.

Coffee Gear

What is an Aeropress?

How did a frisbee pave the way for the invention of one of the easiest and most reliable home brewing devices for coffee? Alan Alder, CEO of Aerobie toy company, utilized his knowledge in making aerodynamic plastic toys, that’s how.

His knowledge of polycarbonate and copolyester was essential to creating the Aeropress in 2005. It’s made with two airtight plastic cylinders that press coffee through the use of pressure inside the tube. Then a metal or paper filter are used to remove the air and extract the coffee. Since its creation, it’s become an international success and people now develop different brewing methods specifically for the Aeropress, such as the inverted method (shown in this photo). By brewing the coffee inside the device before extracting it, a longer brewing time is possible.

The Aeropress is such a versatile tool because brewing recipes are limited only by your imagination, be it an espresso, filter coffee, or even cold brew. Its popularization has also been attributed to the annual Aeropress Championships held in multiple countries, a gathering fondly celebrated by coffee communities worldwide—also one we were happy to host just last month.

Photo courtesy of @goglenphoto

Vietnam

L’usine Dong Khoi

Through a Vietnamese alleyway and up a staircase, L’Usine in Dong Khoi is hidden in plain sight. It’s on the second floor of a building directly across the Saigon Municipal Opera House. This is a historical part of town, where international news reporters were based during the Vietnam War (sometimes called the American War locally). L’Usine’s big arched windows in the front allow natural light to pour through onto the retail section of the cafe, and a window added into the ceiling of the coffee bar section in the back allows light and air to course through as well. There’s also a beautiful mural behind the bar which reinforces how style-forward the entire space is. Despite being very much frequented by expats, their retail section and bar menu are quintessentially Vietnamese. Much of their retail items are locally made and a majority of their coffee are classic Vietnamese styles like dark roasted coffee with condensed milk. It’s a taste of Vietnam’s history in a stylish setting.

Singapore

Stranger’s Reunion

Even though the people in Strangers’ Reunion don’t always know each other, they come together in this space, again and again, reunited by a cup of coffee. Strangers, friends, and families all gather here to share moments and have a good time.

It’s very much a neighborhood cafe with a friendly staff that you can chat with, big communal tables for working or hanging out, and an overall easy-going vibe—it’s almost like home to a lot of people. But don’t let any of that fool you into thinking that this cafe is soft on coffee. They’re very serious about the art of brewing, winning multiple awards from different competitions like barista, latte art, and siphon championships. Quite an impressive feat to be able to serve high-quality coffees like the geisha we had prepared by their excellent baristas, all while maintaining a community-driven, relaxed vibe.

At the end of the day, the key to maintaining such a comfortable atmosphere around their space is that they don’t take themselves too seriously, only the coffee.

Follow @strangersreu on Instagram.

Hongkong Philippines Taiwan

Daily Drink’s Top Five for July 2019

It’s that time of the month again where we round up this month’s Top Five Favorites, and this time we based it on your favorite posts. So without further adieu and in no particular order, here are our Top Five for the month of July 2019:

ABKD, Philippines

Having a creative barista who’s willing to curate and experiment with their own signature beverage is always a good sign, it keeps the regular crowd interested in trying new things and allows them to discover new flavors. Like at ABKD in Poblacion, they created this unique version of an iced latte called the Pandan Latte, in which they use pandan leaves simmered in water with sugar which extracts the essence of the pandan and becomes pandan syrup. They add milk and a shot of espresso to their homemade syrup to complete the drink. This simple twist on the classic latte packs a refreshing flavor that’s not as sweet as might be expected.

Bar Pun, Philippines

A hidden gem in a city full of them, Bar Pun is a cocktail bar that functions on the belief that there are always two meanings to a word. A perfect example of this is the name Pun, which means incense in the local language but in English is a play on words with different meanings. Their bar is best known for using incense and other ingredients heavily influenced by Taiwan’s different cultures and merging them with different Western concepts and ingredients.

Raging Bull, Philippines

Stepping inside Raging Bull will instantly give you a nostalgic feel of the 1960s era. A very intimate and cozy atmosphere hidden inside one of Manila’s finest hotels, Shangri-La at the Fort located in BGC. Best known for their premium cuts of steak,  It’s definitely a good idea to bring a date and enjoy a fancy meal with their classic cocktails. Don’t miss out on their extensive cocktails and spirits menu—they serve almost everything you can think of, from mezcal to craft beer.

COA, Hong Kong

To understand tequila, you must first understand what mezcal is, mezcal can be made from 30 different types of agave but tequila can only be made with the Blue Weber agave plant and can only be made in the city of Tequila, Mexico. Simply put, tequila is mezcal but not all mezcal can become a tequila. The award-winning Mexican-inspired craft cocktail bar in Hongkong called COA takes its name from the tool used to hand-harvest an agave plant that produces Mezcal. Jay Khan, named as the Bartender of the Year by the Bar Awards is devoted to promoting the agave fueled culture of Mexico. He pays homage to Agave through the signature cocktails he creates to celebrate the sacred plant.

Bella Goose, Philippines

More than just a simple neighborhood coffee shop, Bella Goose’s most impressive effort in building an inclusive community is how they use profits to fight human trafficking. They take in women who have been set free from sex slavery, give them an opportunity to start over by training and employing them as roasters and baristas. This is a place where anyone and everyone can truly feel that they belong. A cup of coffee at their shop means more than just a delicious break time treat, it also contributes towards saving lives.

Philippines

COA

To truly understand tequila, you must first grasp what mezcal is. Mezcal itself can be made from almost 30 different agave plants, so what’s the difference between one agave and the next? It’s the kind of subject you wish someone could guide you through, step by step.

Enter Jay Khan. Jay is the mind behind the award-winning Mexican-inspired craft cocktail bar in Hongkong named COA, which takes its name from the tool used to hand-harvest an agave plant in the process of creating mezcal. Khan is devoted to promoting the agave fueled culture of Mexico, paying homage to it through an impressively deep library of mezcal, and signature cocktails he created to celebrate the sacred plant. Keep following Daily Drink and we’ll soon tell you a little more about the ones we’ve tasted.

In recent news, Jay just got awarded as Hong Kong’s 2019 Bartender of the Year by The Bar Awards for the second time. Congratulations, Jay!

Follow @coahongkong, @jaykhan313, and @thebarawards on Instagram.

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