Coffee And Cake Saturday

After…yes, another farewell lunch, we headed to Tiong Bahru Bakery‘s second outlet – in Basement 1 of Raffles City, where we managed to have rather good chats about life and ministry amid the occasional seat-vibrating rumbles.

TBB Raffles City is located just opposite Ding Tai Fung, in a place once verdant with Aerin’s plastic greenery. The chocolate croissant, blood orange tart, mixed berry panna cotta were rather good. We were amused that even the hot chocolate came with “latte art”, but having just experienced the prompt, polite service at DTF, were slightly perturbed at the waitstaff at TBB moving aimlessly about, getting in the way of people struggling with laden trays.

Then, read the last chapter of Matthias Media’s Back To Basics with someone to ensure she really understood what the Christian life was like before making a public declaration of her faith through baptism. After, because it would be otherwise impossible to meet up with friends on account of the lean staffing at their new venture, headed to Papa Palheta‘s fresh flagship store, Chye Seng Huat Hardware (facebook, 150 Tyrwhitt Road). Consolidated within the compound was The CSHH Coffee Bar, the Annex for experimental coffee stuff, the temperature-controlled bean storage, the roastery and packing facilities, and the machine repair workshop. The Bar was quite the looker.

In order to reference the original use of the space (and the continued use of the name of the previous occupant of the space), the interior design featured metal beam light fittings, metal rod shelves, nuts as napkin weights. The coffee island bar top was constructed from painted metal as well.

The Nuts and Bolts blend (Brazilian, Columbian, Tanzanian, Guatemalan) was indeed brighter, more acidic and juicy than the usual Terra Firma. Nicely done. Their in-house baker (the pastry kitchen is on the second level) is apparently the same person who did the desserts at the much-missed Peaberry & Pretzel, formerly at Sunset Way. The brownie, that barometer of a good pastry chef, was simply but well made – crackle crust with rich smooth moist interior.

They did a little tour of the place starting with The Annex (somewhat like The Steeping Room) for experiments, tastings, food pairings.

The coffee bean storage area, the roastery, and the packing area.

Behind a rather heavy metal sliding door, up the stairs to the second level, C-Platform – the coffee school with equipment and charts.

The top level will hold Papa Palheta’s offices. For now, simple desks and chairs sit in the emptiness, lit by dusty streams of sunlight.

The soundscape featured light jazz from an old turntable and the clanging of the automated prayer bell in the temple diagonally across the road.

The fading evening light brought out nice colours in the interior but i had to leggit to say more goodbyes over cream of spinach, a large leg of ham, yuzu goma-tossed salad. A good conversation about church – belonging, serving, growing; validity of spending time in two congregations.

Flat Whites and Sandwiches

With lunchtimes now at a premium, have resorted to quite a few quick bites and grab-and-go’s.

6oz Espresso Bar (facebook, 20 McCallum Street, Tokio Marine Centre). Branding and interior design by Louis Lam who also did work for black coffee dessert bar, shots cafe, and two Joe & Dough cafes. Decent coffee and panini sandwich.

EspressoLAB Singapore (facebook. 13 Bali Lane) is a branch of the popular Kuala Lumpur coffee people. Interior filled with pops of bright colours; no hint of edgy vintage so beloved by the Haji Lane crowd. Mason glasses as lamps.

They’re fairly new so still figuring things out – the flat white (made by the trainee i think) had a promising mid-tones that quickly dropped off to a watery milk taste. Will probably give it another shot some time. Beef pastrami surprisingly good for a coffee joint – toasted sun-dried focaccia bread, crisp greens, the use of mustard to spice up the sandwich.

Ella J Lifestyle Cafe (facebook, Suntec Tower 3). Something a little different – bamboo interior, cakes and pottery hand-made by the Korean lady owner, yoga wear.

Good place to chill out while waiting for friends/family members doing their groceries etc. Apple walnut loaf cake, orange chocolate cream cheese, cuban sandwich, “flat white”, flourless chocolate cake that had a nice sweet meringue crust atop what what tasted like chocolate egg custard.

That is all.

Pies & Coffee at Rochester Mall

Pies & Coffee (facebook. 35 Rochester Drive, Rochester Mall) serves…pies and coffee… The pies had a buttery crust that barely held itself together. The insides were fairly tasty though made us rather thirsty for some time after. Rocket leaves to accompany, mash seemed reconstituted.

Wasn’t too keen on the Geisha on the Air Infuser for the same reason I prefer drip brewing to the Aeropress – a certain lack of body. The espresso-based drinks were decent, with complimentary chocolate chip cookies.

Nice space: friendly and helpful staff, free wifi, choice of al fresco by the water feature or air-conditioned seating sometimes filled with teachers swigging beers and marking scripts.

Henry Congressional

Dropped by Henry Congressional (facebook. Smitten Coffee & Tea Bar‘s pop-up shop/cafe at Henry Park Apartments, 44 Holland Grove Road, next to Secret Recipe) on the way to a late dinner. Minimalist decor as befits a temporary space. Loved the half-curtained windows, aluminium door and window frames, menu painted onto main wall, hanging naked light bulbs (that C & J say they popularised in Singapore).

The tight menu offered a good selection of teas, coffees (fixed prices for black and white, brew bar, cold drip), beers (Mikkeller! Moor!), sandwiches, scones, and some sweets.

The tuna, capers, cucumber sandwich (panini) was toasted to a good degree of crisp without being dry or rough enough to cause abrasions to the roof of your mouth. The balance of flavours between the tuna and capers was excellent. The flourless chocolate cake (with lovely crackle crust) and MIL pineapple tarts (buttery and crumbly, semi-sweet pineapple interior, made by the baker’s mother-in-law) got the thumbs-up. Thumper blend (refreshed?) x Darren x Henry the Kees Ven Der Westen Speedster = a satisfying complex (yeah very descriptive) milk coffee.

(Went back the next day to take away a few slices of the pandan chiffon cake – sans green food colouring, commendably fragrant if no flavouring was added, very light, and as Singaporean aunties would say by way of compliment,”not oily and not too sweet!”)

We two pre-dinner diners had had a trying week. I’d spent the last two days/nights yelling down the Polycom at South Asians, in deference to the cultural norms of negotiating in certain countries. We had a laugh at how difficult it was to snap out of this mode of communication: I have been known to accidentally scare a few Japs by irresponsibly getting on a call with them fresh out of a preceding call with the Indians; someone else could not stop himself from answering phone calls with “Tell me, tell me!”.

Dinner, dessert, and a very serious talk till midnight. Wonderfully timely call not to have a world view restricted by present experience (however pleasant or miserable), but to renew our minds, according to God’s truth, to interpret current reality in a gospel-shaped God-centered manner. For one day will come the Lord, to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is the Lord. The practical outworking of our understanding of the second coming is that we persevere in fighting the good fight; that we not be idle slackers but be diligent in keeping up His good work and being faithful to his purposes.*

Now i’ll have to haul ass to bed before wedding photog duty in a few hours. To add more later (or never)!

*Teaching The Christian Hope, David Jackman

A Death. Nylon Coffee Roasters.

A strange surreality to the day.

Fell asleep mid-sentence early last night after a few long days of dealing with Indo-China. Was awoken in the early hours by the insistent buzzing of SMSes and whatsapp messages coming in about the demise of Singapore theatre actress (or “actor” as they would insist) Emma Yong, and also from theatre friends suddenly arranging meet-ups. It was like this when a mutual friend committed suicide last year – the seeming need to share stories, to grieve together, to be badly comforted in face of the stark reality that death comes for us all…

And then, life went on. Got some ang ku kueh from Ji Xiang Confectionery (1 Everton Park, #01-33) for the girls at the office who are very fond of the sticky oily stuff.

And since i was in the vicinity, dropped by Nylon Coffee Roasters (4 Everton Park #01-40, tumblr, facebook, current hours: 8.30am to 5.30pm) where Dennis Tang and Lee Jia Min, formerly of Papa Palheta/Loysel’s Toy, set up a micro-roasting shop after a few months of travelling, providing coffee consultancy services, and working mobile coffee stations at weddings and other events. “Nylon” because New York and London figured majorly in their interest in coffee, and the moustache logo because the designer they hired didn’t figure on Jiamin being on the scene?!

A Probat roaster at the back which is put into use every other day. (Go maillard reactions!)

Well-wishes.

They’ve done away with the concept of cappuccinos, flat whites, etc and classify their drinks as either milk-based or non-milk-based.

The El Primero (first) blend was a mix of Brazilian and Peruvian – perky and bright in a way that makes one (or just me and my deluded mind) think of South America.

It’s not a cafe with food or other drinks, but the four chairs inside or the use of your two pegs provide loads of opportunity to chat about what’s central to the whole set-up, so somewhat like how it was with The Steeping Room. Good stuff.

(To affirm their coffee geekery, there was also a pin-up calendar with the barista of month being Tim Wendelboe of Norway (World Barista Champion 2004).)

Now, the day is ending with more buzzing from friends overseas, wanting to confirm the news, to grieve. But to what end all these platitudes of any deceased being “in God’s hands” and “with the angels”? If there was life after death, i would want to be sure that the people i love are really in a better place and are really right with God. i would want to be absolutely sure of seeing them again in happier circumstances. Well-meaning but ultimately superficial Hallmark card condolences are faint comfort to any one…

..nor the songs that we once made up and sang and taught others to sing. Despite all earnest sincerity, no friend can accompany us through death’s door (other than the Friend who has himself gone through it before us):

Dedication
We have shared our morning days,
and gone through all rainy nights,
even in the darkest of nights,
stars still light up our way.

Tomorrow is a beautiful dream,
a dream that could be fulfilled.
Cross the bridge of rainbow,
in search of the gold.

For here we stand,
our dearest friends.
Sincerely from our hearts we wish:
may streams of sunlight shine like rays of hope,
hand in hand we’ll work and strive,
for the best things in life.

Friends
Sometimes I wonder, if I’ve made a wrong step somewhere
and times don’t seem as good as they have been before.
It’s not so hard then, to want to lay down and cry,
but then I hear a chorus of voices calling from the other shore,
“Look up! Look up!”

These are my friends, my friends
just some people walking the same road
with hands joined as one together.
Cross the bridge, see the rainbow
feel the breeze, watch the flowers grow
touch the sky, don’t you know
we can go higher, higher, higher!

And through the years, as generations come and go,
yet still this flame inside burns strong despite the rain.
It’s not so hard then, to stumble and fall.
It’s then I hear a chorus of voices calling from the other shore,
“Look up, look up”

You are my friends, my friends,
just some people walking the same road
with hands joined as one together.
Cross the bridge, see the rainbow,
feel the breeze, watch the flowers grow,
touch the sky, don’t you know,
we can go higher, higher, higher…

My friends…

As One
We were once all strangers
Roaming near and far.
Lost in a world of fantasy
Don’t know who we are. [sic]
Then one day destined we were
To stand together here as one. (lalala)
We’ll be together, together as one.

Day by day our spirits grew
Bonding us with love.
Striving, working, never rest [sic]
Striving for the best.
‘Tis our story, ’tis our song
Filled with joy, spirit strong as one. (lalala)
We’ll be together, together as one.

As the years pass us by
In many ways we fly.
But the spirit still remains
It can never die.
‘Tis our story, ’tis our song
Filled with joy, spirit strong as one. (lalala)
We’ll be together, together as one.

MU Parlour, Strangers’ Reunion, Fraud and Truth

Last week, with China closed for Ching Ming/Qingming, finally got round to spending some time with India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam, and watching the Myanmar elections, and having strange vivid dreams about attending the official show-and-tell of North Korea’s rockets. Then back to China this week for insider news on political maneuverings, and also updates from the US on the whole Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud saga.

In the midst of all this, was pleased to have wandered into two new cafes/coffee places:

MU Parlour in the space previously occupied by Anthropology at 16A Lorong Mambong – a decent cup of MU Blend No. 21, not quite as citrusy or chocolatey as described but really quite decent; and

Strangers’ Reunion (facebook) at 37 Kampong Bahru Road (just a few doors down from Highlander Coffee), where Ryan Kieran Tan helms a Synesso Hydra II 3 Group, the first of its kind in Singapore (HT: Colin Loh), and takes Papa Palheta‘s Terra Firma blend to the bright side.

Coffee hasn’t begun to fetch the sort of prices that result in the coffee equivalent of dodgy DRCs. But come to think of it, brinksmanship, character assassination (by both the incumbent and the opposition), conveying words that are technically accurate but intentionally set in a context that encourages the hearer to understand them to mean something else etc, are all variations on fraud, yet are par for course in social, political intercourse.

I was trying to explain this, over lunch, to a pastor recently: if God is a God who is insistent that humans should have faith in him and trust him because he is unfailingly trustworthy and his words are always true, then we who profess to follow him must not be any different. The command not to bear false witness (Exodus 20:16, Exodus 23:1, Deuteronomy 5:20) isn’t to be read restrictively just to mean not to say anything untrue in a court of law, but that one’s whole character must be one of integrity (cf. Matthew 5:33-37).

There has arisen a strange practice in some Christian circles where a more knowledgeable member of a bible study group asks questions of the leader, giving the impression that she would like to be enlightened, when she actually hopes that others will benefit by her query. The motive for this is a good one, but the constant practice of this sort of behaviour does not help in building trustworthy character. This became evident recently when I asked one of these helpful people about something she had said to someone else, her first instinct was to deny vehemently that she had ever said anything at all, though this was later shown to be untrue.

This is why Paul was keen to emphasise his trustworthiness (and therefore the trustworthiness of God’s word through him):

…we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2 ESV)

In inviting people to events where the gospel will be preached, it appears to be the common practice to downplay the talk and emphasise the good music or the fantastic meal as the main attraction. Before i became a Christian, i was leery of this sort of trickery; and now i realise it possibly dishonours the very God we claim to exalt.

Life, Liberty, Coffee

On the way to a wedding at Foochow Methodist Church in Little India last week, I wanted to check out a terrace house* on Starlight Road I’d visited many years ago, to see the gentrification of the area.

But we were delayed by an intriguing sign:
Naturally, an investigation was in order.

Liberty Coffee (facebook), at 131 Rangoon Road, diagonally across from L’Etoile Cafe on Owen Road, was set up by Terence Tay (ex-pilot cf Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar’s ex-naval officer). His description of the roastery as a speakeasy surely refers to its lack of regular opening hours or a barista to call its own, rather than any fly-by-night connotations or opium in the coffee.

With the Singapore “artisanal”, specialty, third wave coffee field already filling fast with players, Terence was right to start on a friendly note. For last week’s open house, he borrowed three baristas to helm the La Marzocco: Marcus Leong from Papa Palheta/Loysel’s Toy, Darren Chang (aforementioned ex-navy guy) from Smitten Coffee, and Pavan Khialani from Sarnies, Telok Ayer Street, and some chaps from Jewel Coffee dropped by for a chat.

They mainly retail “globally-sourced specialty beans, artisan-roasted to the highest standard in Singapore” on the big black Giesen coffee roaster (also seen in black at Smitten Coffee and blue at Jimmy Monkey) in the rear of the shophouse. A Mirage Veloce Coffee Machine and a smaller Giesen(?) sat on ledge in the back as well.

The house Speakeasy Espresso blend was lovely in a flat white made by Pav: tobacco at first then transiting to nutty goodness with slight spice. Brazil Fazenda Lagoa Mondo Novo, Guatemala Finca Santa Ana La Huerta, Ethiopia Sidamo. Terence said they had been cupping every day and the beans were best after a 2-3 week rest from their roast date.

They did single origin pour-overs too (11g a cup).

Also very decent:

banana walnut bread;

pecan date cookies; but we were too late for the Valrhona chocolate layer cake.

On the topic of liberty, we’ve had hilarious little discussions over the past week about the lawyers who help people fight for their freedom – not the society-approved human rights sort who claim to fight for the allegedly oppressed, poor and downtrodden; but the types who represent alleged murderers, rapists, rich corrupt politicians (whom, people forget, are also entitled to the same sort of “human rights” as the first category).

You really need the right advocate for the job, and a large part of this has to do with understanding the culture within which you will be judged: part of this has to do with the different laws in each jurisdiction (since each society may have differing definitions of what it considers to be just, and some laws are in place to deal with the unique issues in each place), another part of this is because different legal systems work in different ways, and yet another part of this is because the judge is human and therefore, not matter how hard he tries to be objective and how many safeguards are in place, exercises his discretion within a certain culture.

If you were in India, you would need an Indian lawyer who would be able to draft court papers in the most confident and self-righteous language possible (otherwise, you may not be taken seriously) but have the patience to wait a whole day to have your case heard; if you were in Indonesia, your lawyer would have to be able to navigate the queues to have your case heard some time this century (without bribery) etc. In these two instances, an American lawyer (for example), throwing his weight around and demanding his right to be heard and going to the media whining, might merely jeopardise your case, even if he knew the local laws like the back of his hand.

And if, like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, you were facing charges “abetting aggravated pimping by an organised gang” and “misuse of company funds”, and you’d actually attended an orgy party organised by the head of the local French police, perhaps you need to pay top Euro to a French lawyer like Henri Leclerc who will argue (not before an official judge but the judge that is the collective public) that you may not have known you were with prostitutes as “in these parties, you’re not necessarily dressed. I defy you to tell the difference between a nude prostitute and a nude woman of quality.”

While some of us may never have charges brought against us in a court of law in this world, we will all stand before God to be judged on the Last Day. And if the biblical accounts of human encounters with God is anything to go by, we will be trembling with fear and attempting to hide under mountains to avoid his wrath.

What a relief then that we have a supremely competent lawyer, an advocate, who will act for us and defend us in God’s court of law (1 John 2:1). And his plea will be that he himself has been the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), so that whoever believed in him (before it was too late to do so) would not perish, but would have eternal life (John 3:16).

*

3 Starlight Road

12 Starlight Road

Studying in Coffee Shops and Cafes

Exams are looming but it’s been difficult to carve out much time to get some studying done. So i’ve tried to drop off at coffee joints in-between meeting people to cram while refuelling the tank(s). For the price of coffee and/or non-liquid sustenance, you get air-conditioning, a chair and a table, free wifi, and maybe even complimentary drinkable water.

Loads of students study at cafes in Singapore. While nursing a cup of coffee for hours might give the right to these amenities, chope-ing seats with bags and papers to secure them in your absence would definitely be unfair to both the proprietor and the potential customer. And, in any case, it might be better to put coins in the parking meter if hogging a seat for more than a reasonable period of time. (Haven’t given much thought to this since my time in each cafe is necessarily limited by the next appointment and visits usually occur during lull periods.)

For now, etiquette for studying in coffee shops and cafes would probably include:

• first determining whether the proprietor of the place has factored into their financial projections people hogging seats for prolonged periods of time to make use of power sockets or free wifi to study or work. Remember that this is a food/drink outlet not a library. The Book Cafe, for instance, actively encourages lounging around so you can do so with a good conscience;
• purchasing food and/or drink at the location. Especially if it is a small independent place, do buy more than the minimum;
• since you will be there for a long time, sit at the smallest seat instead of spreading out over 4 seats, so as to leave space for other customers;
• certainly do not secure your space with books or bags while going off to get your food at some other establishment!;
• be considerate – be polite to the waitstaff (even if they ask you not to study there after you’ve just made yourself comfortable), clean up after yourself (especially if you’ve been doing some messy artwork), tip and tweet if you think the service was good, don’t pollute the air with noise (either from laptop speakers or long phone conversations), don’t trail wires where people might trip on them (and, in this day and age, sue you or the poor proprietor), don’t hog the free wifi with huge downloads;
• if you’ve been there for some time and the lunch/tea/dinner crowd has come in, it’s time for a break. Leave and let better peak period customers take your place.

Most people have no qualms about camping at chain stores like Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Helpfully near the Buona Vista MRT station is Starbucks Rochester Park (facebook) at 37 Rochester Drive. As Bryant Simon notes in Everything But The Coffee, the comforting homogeneity of Starbucks outlets all over the world means you can expect a safe environment, clean tables and toilets, and the impression that you’re making a difference in the world by purchasing expensive java.

Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar (facebook), One-North Residences, was fairly quiet on a Saturday afternoon. Managed to have breakfast at 3pm and a bit of a read while waiting for a friend to get the kids napping. The coffee was decent but not as nuanced and dangerous as when Michael Ryan pulled it.

The staff at Toby’s Estate Coffee Singapore (facebook), 8 Rodyk Street, said there was no problem at all using the wall sockets to juice up laptops and mobile devices. The Rodyk Street blend in milk was of usual good standard.

Selfish Gene Cafe (facebook) at 40 Craig Road was quite empty as well. There was only one shot of espresso in the flat white so it was rather milky and the foam wasn’t quite micro, but it doesn’t claim to be a specialty coffee joint any way so might return to try the food.

Just a few roads away, you’d be hogging the very limited table space if you tried to camp out at Oriole Coffee Roasters (facebook), Jiak Chuan Road. But boy, was their new Yellowbird blend something special – the aftertaste of pomelo was very prominent. A friendly barista confirmed this and explained that even after they calibrate the beans in the morning, they have to keep adjusting as the beans change throughout the day. There wasn’t much piped tobacco on the palate that day. Was happy to spot a copy of Scott Rao’s Everything But The Espresso that i’ve been hunting for for ages and a bag of single origin Ethiopian Sidama (not Sidamo?).

ReStore Living Cafe (facebook) at 124 Tanjong Pagar Road offered very decent coffee in mugs, waffles on vintage plates, and eye-candy vintage furniture. It was quiet when i went.

Yesterday, multi-tasking took a different angle. We managed to get in a quick look at 1 Samuel during a lull in the Chinese New Year celebrations at the pastor’s house. Since it was a spacious enough bungalow, we scored a place in his air-conditioned study (nice to observe from his work space that he’s someone who works very hard at understanding God’s word, is serious about sin, and is disciplined about making the best use of his time):

1 Samuel 1 – 1 Samuel 2:10
Q: What do we know about the conception of Samuel? Who gave Hannah the baby?
Miraculous (she was barren). God.

Q: What is Hannah’s reaction to Samuel’s arrival?
She acknowledges that this comes from God. Praises God not just for answering her prayers for a child, but that he is LORD over all things in the world because he created the whole world – he judges his enemies, he gives life to the dead, he protects his people.

1 Samuel 2:11 – 25
Q: Who was Eli?
priest
Ithamar, son of Aaron, who was made a priest of the Lord at Mount Sinai along with his father and brothers (Ex. 28:1; cf. 1 Chron. 24:3). Eli was a descendant of this house, according to 1 Chron. 24:3, where it is stated that his great-great-great-grandson Ahimelech was “of the sons of Ithamar.”

Q: What was his role as priest?
mediate between God and man. Because of man’s sin, the holy God would no longer deal directly with man.

Q: Why does the Bible call Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, “worthless men”?
1 Samuel 2:12 – they did not know the LORD (not ignorance but lack of relationship)
1 Samuel 2:13-17 – commandeered people’s sacrifices even before they could make the sacrifices
The priests were to be supported by portions of the sacrifices of the people. In various parts of the Mosaic law the portion to be given to the priests is specified for various sacrifices, e.g., Deut. 18:3 (shoulder, cheeks, and stomach) and Lev. 7:31–32 (breast and right thigh).
1 Samuel 2:22 – slept with women serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting

1 Samuel 2:26 – 3:21
Q: How did God respond?
Punishes Eli’s family:”the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.”

Q: What sign would God give that all he had said will surely happen?
Both of Hophni and Phinehas shall die on the same day.

Q: Why does God respond in this manner?
Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Eli knew about the iniquity, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them -> so Eli himself despised God.

Q: What does this tell us about God?

1 Samuel 4:2 – 10
Q: What do we know about the Ark of God?
“The ark of the covenant had been “in the temple of the Lord” in Shiloh (3:3). (On the details of the ark, cf. Ex. 25:10–22; 37:1–9; and illustration.) Moses was commanded by the Lord to put the tablets of the covenant, or the “testimony,” into the ark (Ex. 25:16; Deut. 10:5; cf. 1 Kings 8:9). Cherubim often appear in the iconography of the ancient Near East as hybrid figures, with animal and human characteristics. enthroned. The ark was the visible sign of the holy presence of the Lord, whose real throne is on high, above the heavens. But it was more than just a sign, for the ark was also the focal point of God’s actual presence among his people (Ex. 25:22 says, “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you …”; cf. Num. 7:89; also Ex. 29:42–43; 30:6, 36; 37:1–9; 40:34–38; Lev. 16:2; Num. 17:4). The conception of the ark as a visible sign of the Lord’s presence gave a military importance to the ark (as can be seen in Num. 10:33–36 and Joshua 3–4; 6); it functioned as a battle safeguard and showed that the Lord was present and fighting for Israel.” (ESV Study Bible)

Q: What did the elders of Israel think the Ark of God would do for them?
“Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

Q: Why was this a really bad idea?
The Lord is against you and you think by bringing his ark along you can force him to fight for you? Are you kidding me? The Lord is far more than his ark – it is only a sign of his presence. And he will not be forced into doing anything. And obviously the ark isn’t a magic object.

1 Samuel 4:12 – 22
Q: What do the deaths of Hophni and Phinehas mean?
God’s punishment on Eli’s house has begun, as he promised.

Q: What does the capture of the ark mean?
God is no longer with Israel, as he said he would not be if they disobeyed him.

Q: What does this tell us about God?

1 Samuel 5:1 – 7:2
Q: How do the Philistines and their gods fare with the Ark of the Lord amongst them?
The writer of 1 Samuel was really taking the mickey.

Q: What does this tell us about their gods?

Q: How do the Israelites fare with the Ark of the Lord amongst them?

Q: What does this tell us about God?

1 Samuel 7:3 – 15
Q: How do the people respond?

Q: What is God’s reaction?

1 Samuel 8
Q: But what happens when Samuel gets old?

Q: Why do the people want a king?

Q: What is wrong with this?

1 Samuel 9 – 11
Q: Who chooses Saul as king?

Q: Who determines Saul’s duties as king?

1 Samuel 12
Q: What are Samuel’s parting words?

Q: Why are they appropriate at this point?

1 Samuel 13
Q: Unfortunately, after 3 short years, Saul fouls up. What does he do wrong?

Q: Why is this so serious?

Q: What was his excuse?

Q: What was God’s reaction?

Q: What does this tell us about God?

1 Samuel 15
Q: Saul never learns. What does he do wrong now?

Q: Why was his excuse?

Q: In what way was this similar to what Adam and Eve did?

Q: What was God’s reaction to Saul’s presumption?

Q: What does this tell us about God?

A Sabbath Sunday

Overall, a happily fruitful Sunday:

$$

Malachi 2:17-3:18 for Sunday sermon – clarified some thinking about tithing which i hadn’t quite articulated to myself – the 10% tithing and co-relation between tithing and blessing was particular to the Old Testament when God still dealt with that people while they were living in a land he had brought them to – it was a direct commandment and a form of taxes for the upkeep of the nation’s temple and the Levites (priests). But all this was a foreshadowing of the reality that God’s people were more than just the nation of Israel and that God’s land was the heavenly kingdom not an earthly one. Therefore, the commendation at the present time is to give of one’s own accord, as much as one wishes. This should not be governed by any specific church regulations, though what one spends on is an indication of where one’s heart is, so there is the commendation of the church in Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8 that they gave generously from their poverty because of the abundance of joy that came from knowing God and the eagerness to see God’s people taken care of) – that is to say, the motivation for giving was commended, rather than the generosity of the giving per se. What one’s credit card statement looks like would also show if one thinks like the fool of Luke 12:16-21 who, having ample goods, told his soul to relax, eat, drink and be merry, not realising that God would ask for the return of his soul. But a specific obligation of the church is to feed the people who take care of the church (1 Corinthians 9:7-11), though this is likened to feeding an ox treading the grain rather than stuffing the coffers of a dictator (furthermore, many of the apostles declined to make use of this right),

just not enough time to talk to all the people i wanted to catch up with between services, having a baby fall asleep on me after 30 seconds (i know i’m really boring but that’s really a new low, i said on facebook, and 30 people liked it),

a heart-threatening run along the Singapore River with the flu bug in the system, a grocery run at Meidiya supermarket in Liang Court, then an artery-clogging fry-up (advertised on the menu as “Heart-stopping Hashies: Two hash browns topped with wilted spinach, scrambled eggs, sautéed mushrooms, crispy bacon bits and creamy hollandaise sauce”) and a Bloody Mary for brunch at The Merry Men Kitchen + Bar (86 Robertson Quay, #01-02 Robertson Blue),

knuckling down and getting work done at Toby’s Estate (8 Rodyk Street, Robertson Quay) on the first study for the upcoming camp (Mark 1:1-15: (i) the prophets of old (Isaiah and Malachi) testify concerning John the Baptist and Jesus as messenger and the Lord respectively; (ii) God himself testifies concerning Jesus saying that he is his son with whom he is well-pleased; (iii) Jesus’ own actions testify that he is all the nation of Israel, also called God’s son, could not be),

taking delivery of a Jill Sander x UNIQLO +J pin-striped jacket, my old second generation ipod and a copy of Christopher Ash’s Remaking a Broken World,

having someone join me after choir practice so we could enjoy the short but fascinating Book of Ruth together – not the cheesy love story so many make it out to be, rather a narrative of how God sovereignly worked through the disobedience of Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion (who were all Israelites who ought to have known God’s laws), and the obedience of Boaz (unlike his ancestor Judah – Tamar incident (Genesis 38)) and Ruth the Moabite (born into a nation that was an enemy of God’s people). The book repeatedly commends their insistence on doing right before God despite what seems to be detriment to self – Boaz impairing his own estate by marrying Ruth and giving the first boy to Naomi for her old age, and Ruth not just risking it as a foreigner in the violent Judges-era land of Judah  but also seemingly giving up her own happiness by not going after unrelated or younger men who were not Naomi’s redeemers. From this unlikely union would come Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of great king David, the father…many generations later of the greatest king, Jesus,

a shared dinner at Verre Wine Bar (facebook. 8 Rodyk Street. Dinner set at S$35 with a choice of starter and main or main and dessert, and a glass of wine), and a chat, then going home in the rain, inspired to cook beef bourguignon for tomorrow’s dinner. (Earworm: Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Op. 9 No. 2. Played by Vladimir Ashkenazy, rather than, say, Arthur Rubinstein)

Coffee from St. Helena and Yemen

Popped by Geisha Specialty Coffee (facebook) at Burlington Square after lunch near a client’s office and enjoyed two pour-overs:

a cup of St. Helena from the island on which Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled:

St. Helena is a island in the South Atlantic Ocean which situated just above the Tropic of Capricorn, midway between Africa and America. Production is low, demand is high and the quality exceptional. It is called the most exclusive coffee in the world.

Producer: Sandy Bay Estate
Cultivar: Green-tipped Bourbon
Way of process: wash process
Flavour: Full and complex aroma, balance of ripe fruit.

– I liked its complexity, quite acidic at first but mellowing into mild toffee as the cup cooled. Not as fragrant as the Geisha; and

a cup of Yemen Mocha not quite like the previous one I’ve had – this one had the slight dry aroma of barbecued meat and was quite mellow from the start, ending with a somewhat yeasty note (like red wine, said Wang Tao). Again, the beans were harvested by traditional methods, sun-dried and then process with primitive implements (stones), leaving them disfigured and broken.

We spoke a bit about how wonderful it is that there are so many coffee beans in this world, each with their own characteristic taste. With all the fun i’ve gotten from grapes and barley and coffee beans these few months, it occurred to me that the Bible is slightly modest in describing the creation of vegetation with a mere two verses in Genesis 1:

And God said,”Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12)

Then again, i suppose the Bible isn’t interested in providing encyclopedic information about the whole universe (and therefore, not about the Big Bang or dinosaurs or life on other planets etc); it is really quite focused on man’s persistent and critical problem (his inability to have a right relationship with his Maker), and the ultimate and only way to be saved from the dire eternal consequences of this.

Coffee Joints for Mugger-toadery + Sunny Holidays for Pie and Good Old Isaiah

We were at different coffee places over the last few days, mugging hard. The seasonal blend (Columbia, Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Costa Rica) at 40 Hands Coffee (facebook) was not half bad though the foam was slightly strange. Pity the cakes were obviously rather tired at the end of a Saturday.

The Thumper blend in a flat white at Smitten Coffee & Tea Bar (facebook) was much better than previously experienced. The barista this time was Darren Chang – roast was still dark but well-extracted in the milk. And the ET Artisan macarons were delicious as usual.

L’etoile Cafe (facebook) in a corner shophouse along Owen Road was the bomb: natural light during the day, space galore, power sockets in the wall, wifi, pleasant music, nice people who actually offered repeatedly to top up the hot water in the teapot, well-made coffee from Highlander Coffee blends.

When the sun came out and the skies were blue and the wind beckoning, it was too nice outside to be studying and i was extremely glad for a bit of croquet, frisbee and excellent Windowsill Pies (facebook. pecan and toffee, Christmas, morello cherry from the Farmers’ Market at Loewen Gardens, Dempsey), and also to have David Jackman give an Introduction to Isaiah.

Isaiah prophesised during reigns of 4 kings of Judah – Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1, about 732-686BC). During this time, the northern kingdom of Samaria (Israel) was besieged by Assyria and eventually overthrown at its people, God’s people, scattered. Isaiah was called on the year Azariah (father of Jotham) died (Azariah had fancied himself to be priest as well as king and tried to offer incense in the temple. He was struck with leprosy and co-reigned with Jotham his son before expiring (2 Kings 15)). At that time, Assyria was the top nation (2 Kings 15-17). But Babylon would get rid of them eventually. It was a time of  great political upheaval.

The prophesies of Isaiah were unsettling. They were warnings of judgment on the people of God in the north (Israel) and south (Judah, though also called Israel in Isaiah, metonymically, because “Israel” also refers to “God’s people” since they all came from Jacob who was renamed “Israel”)(Isaiah 1:2). What did God have against them?

The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the LORD,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged. (Isaiah 1:3-4)

It’s the same issue that has been plaguing mankind since The Fall – creatures who don’t acknowledge their Creator, though God has already made himself known in many times and many ways to Israel. The faithful city has become the whore (Isaiah 1:21), the people who had entered into a covenant relationship with God had very quickly abandoned him. How will this sinful people become the holy righteous nation of Isaiah 66?

Isaiah tells us how. And again, it is the great promise of God willing to reach out to his own rebellious people instead of just destroying them as he could have as their Creator. Surely this is not what an almighty God does – humbly (or rather humiliatingly) sending prophet after prophet to call his people back to him? Isn’t that rather…needy? But this God isn’t a god thought up by humans and so is quite outside our expectations – he is all powerful and yet needlessly compassionate; he is all about both divine judgment and divine love, simultaneously:

Isaiah 1-12
Here, there are great promises of God reaching out to his people, but the severe threat from God of consequences for not turning back to him. Isaiah introduces the choices that people of God will have to make – accept that God is really God and obey him, or reject him and face judgment for rejecting him (Isaiah 1-5). But this is a reiteration of what so many of God’s servants and prophets from all the generations since Adam have been telling the people and nothing much has changed – the people just can’t snap out of their sinfulness. So Isaiah 6-12 contains that great hope that God is going to come himself to do something to change the situation. The focus is on a figure called the Immanuel (meaning “God with us”) who will come to do something for his people – God isn’t a distant deity but one who cares enough to be intimately involved in his creation. The Immanuel would be a shoot from stump of Jesse (that is, a human from the line of David. Jesse was the son of Boaz and Ruth and father of David), a great king who would be God’s witness, yet also God (Isaiah 9:6 – “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace). (The people later called “Christians” didn’t make up the divinity of Jesus.)

But Jesus would come only 800 years in the future. Meanwhile, the message to God’s people was the same then as it is now – they had to choose whom they would trust – God, or themselves or other people. So God tells Ahaz is not to be afraid (Isaiah 7) that Syria and Israel (their own brother!) had devised evil against Judah:

if you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all. (Isaiah 7:9b)

Are you going to believe in God’s promise that if you keep trusting him he will save you or will you rely on human promises to protect yourself? (Obviously, in all situations, it would be illogical to claim to “trust God” to provide things he never promised in the first place – like prosperity or health or a good marriage or a satisfying career.)

Isaiah 13-27
10 oracles are preached about various nations in 2 sets of 5. The nation of Babylon heads each set (Isaiah 13, 21). God will restore the Davidic monarchy who will rule Zion and also the world. Though in the short-term, Assyria threatens to destroy God’s people, it is but only a rod in God’s hands. People need to know that God isn’t just the national deity of Israel, and that all the nations are in the hands of God. No nation has any additional or independent power other than the power that God gives them. In the context of that era, if God can bring his promises to fruition by controlling even the great Babylon then nothing would be able stand in his way; God can do it in the face of human determination to resist him, fight against him and ignore that he is God. God has whole world in his hand; he is the lord of history of all nations, governs whole earth, and causes the rise and fall of nations. Why do the people of God rely on alliances or coalitions or human politics? They are useless because it is not other humans who are in control but God. And God had already given Judah pretty specific promises that he would not punish them with Babylon if only they trusted that same promise!

Isaiah 24-27 extends this idea to whole world in every period of history. God promises that he will eventually judge all human rebellion – everybody everywhere will come under judgment of God, not just creatures but all spiritual things in heaven as well (Isaiah 24:21). But there is never just the threat, but this is followed with the promise in Isaiah 25 that through judgment something better will come and eventually death itself (which came about only because of The Fall – Genesis 3) will be destroyed. The right reaction should then be great faith in what God will do (Isaiah 26-27).

Isaiah 28-39
In Hezekiah’s days, the threat is still from Assyria. Hezekiah faces same issues – does he stand firm in faith and believe God’s promises, or will he like Ahaz build alliances instead of relying on God? Would Hezekiah think that Egypt would work with him against Assyria? They would be a good ally since they were powerful and had the latest in military technology (horses and chariots – Isaiah 31). But why go to Egypt if you have God’s promises of protection if only you trust in his promises? Hezzy does the sensible thing when he receives a threatening letter from the Assyrians – he spreads it out before God, trusting in him to deliver (like he had promised) and there is indeed an amazing deliverance (because that’s what God had said he would do in this situation).

Unfortunately, this doesn’t end too well because Hezekiah, though generally faithful, isn’t perfect. And the next threat comes from Babylon and God tells Hezekiah that Babyloan will prevail and Judah will be destroyed (Isaiah 39)

Isaiah 40-55
But this isn’t the end of God’s people. Isaiah 40-55 centers around the second major character: the suffering servant, an individual who is again clearly divine as well as human. He will bring about a whole new community of redeemed people who will become citizens of a new Jerusalem. There are the great servant songs of suffering that we later realise (in the Gospels) is Jesus’ work of redemption on the cross. Because of his work, there will be a new international community – God’s people will come not just from the scattered children of Israel but from the whole world.

Isaiah 56-66
This we see in part in the church today, but complete fulfilment is only when Jesus (the Immanuel, the Suffering Servant and here also the Divine Conqueror) comes again. While we are waiting for this what should we be doing? Remember our human frailty and divine ability. We will never find the resources to live a godly life in ourselves; while we wait for him to return, we should know that we will always be sinful and weak and failing. But there is the promise of the divine conqueror/warrior who will eradicate all evil at the end of days. This extermination of evil includes the terrible destruction of those who do not ask for his mercy, with bloodstains on the garments of the anointed conqueror like the stains of those who tread the winepress. Only with this judgement will there be real justice and righteousness that we so crave.

In Isaiah 65-66, we are reminded again that God will do what he has promised as he has always done. We need only trust that he will save, to be saved from promised destruction and brought into the new heavens and new earth that God has said he will make.

Yet More Interesting Coffee Joints in Singapore

Previous posts on (specialty) coffee joints in Singapore:

• More Espressos, Lattes and Chemex Brews in Singapore
• It Must Be Raining Beans – Even More Specialty Coffee Joints in Singapore

Updates here.

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While waiting for the rest to arrive at dinner, we were chatting about the necessity of describing the entire experience of eating or drinking in any critique or review of a food or beverage. In wine, for example, one should describe the colour, the aroma and bouquet, and then the whole taste process from when the wine first enters the mouth till it reaches the back of the palate and is swallowed. To describe just part of the process would be confusing to a third party, like only one of the blind men feeling up the proverbial elephant describing what that elephant looked like. Also, when critiquing a beverage, it would be remiss to exclude mention of the circumstances in which that beverage was consumed – wine would taste different at the beginning of the day before breakfast and at the end of the day when accompanied by a medium rare ribeye. When the others came, they chimed in that the external circumstances in which consumption took place also mattered – even if the kitchen sent out it most wonderful dishes, one’s experience would be spoilt if service was rude or shoddy.

i should be more aware of these things when setting out experiences hereabouts, but will probably be unable to fully enunciate the entirety thereof. It’s absolutely magnificent how much sensory pleasure we can derive from what should merely be just feeding and hydrating for survival.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
…
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:13-17,23-24)

So, we are fortunate to enjoy another wave of interesting coffee places, all with rather varied concepts and offering different experiences:

Brunetti Singapore aims the bring the Italian coffee culture, via Melbourne, to Singapore. It is a full-service cafe in a mall (01-35 Tanglin Mall), offering soups and Italian savouries like panini and pizza, a good range of Italian confections like cannoli, a gelateria section and coffee serviced by a 5-group La Cimbali. The coffee was roasted Italian-style – dark, so that there is some bitterness on the tongue at first, but this roast profile on the Santa Chiara house-blend was well-tempered by the smooth sweet milk. My cup was made by [Fabio?], who seemed to be running things behind the counter as well. The other barista on that shift was a Chinese lady. There were also two attentive Indian ladies (probably with interests in Gill Capital?) bustling about to ensure that tables were cleared and people were taken care of. Loads international school kids came by for gelato and cakes and macarons.

Current opening times:
Daily: 9am – 10pm

Pause (fb) at Dominic Khoo’s 28th Fevrier (5 Jalan Kilang) is a different creature. Set within Dominic Khoo’s white indescribable space in an industrial estate, Pause shares the site with designer Kevin Seah and bespoke shoemaker Edwin Neo of Ed Et El. Dominic Khoo’s photographs line the walls and the seating at the coffee area consists of Flexiblelove Chairs made from recycled paper.

Haryanto Soemito trained at Cuppachoice and he and the other barista were quite intent on getting the extraction just right. The safe well-attested house blend of Columbian, Kenyan and Sumatran beans was earthy and nutty in the piccolo latte, and though latte art etching isn’t known to be quite as suave as free pour latte art, the kawaii-ness was appreciated.

Current opening times:
Weekdays: 8am – 11pm
Saturdays: 10am onwards
Sundays: 1pm – 8pm

At Drips bakery cafe at #01-05, Block 82 Tiong Poh Road in Tiong Bahru Estate, due attention is given to the Graffeo coffee beans which are ground in a Mazzer and brewed on a Unic. The piccolo latte is the piccolo-est est i’ve seen, and in the small milk, the Italian-roast was slightly dry (stringent?) and a tiny bit smokey. Decent enough, but really, the pastries (made fresh daily) are where one’s energies should be focused – the excellent shortcrust tart shells were buttery and sweet (but not too) and shattered properly, and the strawberries were appropriately sweet in their way and not choked with gelatin glaze. Alfred Chan of Fredo Galaxy is apparently a co-owner. Fortunate is the congregation at St. Matthew’s Church on Eng Hoon Street.

Current opening times:
Monday – Thursday (closed on Tuesdays), Saturday and Sunday: 10.30am – 9.30pm
Friday: 10.30am – 11pm

Open Door Policy (19 Yong Siak Street, Yong Siak View, Tiong Bahru Estate) is a bistro rather than a coffee joint but its coffee deserves mention. The “specialty coffee bar” next to the restaurant bar is helmed by folk from Harry Grover’s 40 Hands Coffee (all part of Cynthia Chua’s Spa Espirit group) and the flat white i had was excellent – the house blend of Brazilian (base), Papa New Guinean and Bali Kintamani was roasted complex enough to taste like it teetered on the knife-edge of being a nasty cup but the barista had balanced it just right in the milk so there were hints of spice (cinnamon?) and chocolate as the cup cooled.

Toby’s Estate Coffee Asia at #01-03, 8 Rodyk Street, finally opened after much anticipation. We knew from his blog that Suhaimie Sukiman (formerly from Cuppachoice) would be there but the other baristas looked somewhat familiar… Colin Loh saved a lot of brain-racking (thanks!) – there’s Terence Tan from Joe & Dough (Suntec), Andy from Jewel Coffee, Nizam from Black. Seating is either at the lovely long communal table with coffee plant in the middle of the space, at bar seats facing the river or outside under large brollies. There is a large Loring roaster in one corner and a range of Hario products and Toby’s Estate tea cannisters facing the brew bar in another, and you cannot help but notice the gleaming elegant Mirage next to the cashier.

The flat white from the Rodyk Street Blend (Guatemala Antigua Los Volcanes and Indonesian Sumatra Long Berry) was excellent (to my shame i was preoccupied with a book and forget to remember the specifics of how it tasted) and the Guatemala cold brew was like a refreshing glass of floral smoky oolong. Next time, i’ll want to try the cold brew neat. Many return trips are being planned.

It Must Be Raining Beans – Even More Specialty Coffee Joints in Singapore

Previous post on the subject: More Espressos, Lattes and Chemex Brews in Singapore
Updates on the subject: Yet More Interesting Coffee Joints In Singapore and here

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“Specialty coffee” didn’t quite make it to my vocabulary until recently, when many of the proprietors welcoming potential customers to their coffee places described the spaces as serving “specialty coffee”. It remains to be seen whether these go the way of other Singapore food fads like apple strudel, bubble tea (now making a re-appearance), roti boy (coffee-laced mexican buns).

But let’s enjoy the sprouting while it lasts! It’s incredibly exciting to taste and see all the different interpretations of what coffee shop owners and baristas consider good coffee:

93 degreesC coffee is tucked away at the foot of Mount Faber, at 16 Morse Road No. 207 (“enter by Wishart Road”) – something for the Merrill Lynch chaps and shipping and oil & gas folk at HarbourFront. They roast their beans slightly darker, in-house on a bright red Toper and brew on a Wega. The house blend had a Sumatran base and a couple of other beans including Guatemalan – this began with a faint interesting bright nutty taste but sadly it faded too soon in the milk. They also have an interesting range of beans at the brew bar – will be back to check this out.

Current opening hours:
11 am to 7 pm on weekdays (closed on Wednesdays)
8 am to 6 pm on weekends

Spotted Maison Ikkoku during weekly jaunt down Kandahar Street, near Arab Street. At 20 Kandahar Street, wooden cabinets hang from the ceilings, with their doors made into coffee tables. The beans on offer when I was there were a Brazilian Fazenda Santa Alina, Ethiopian Harrar, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Jamaican Blue Mountain. Their house blend, brewed on a Nuova Simonelli and roasted by Cuppa Choice, was a mixture of the first three: quite a neutral cup but would have preferred something that would have made a better stand against the milk. It was my fault for choosing the single origin Brazilian for my second cup, a flat white – wasted the beans and the extra S$2 for a cup of excellence choice – would have been more respectful to have had it over at the brew bar instead. The carrot cake, made specially by a friend of the owner, was moist and had an ample amount of ingredients and taste. Looks like these guys are serious about attempting to get everything just right – they also had a Japanese latte artist, Hiroshi Sawada of Streamer Coffee, down for a bit of coaching.

Current opening hours:
Mon – Thu: 09:00 – 19:00
Fri – Sat: 09:00 – 22:00
Sun: 09:00 – 18:00

Sprouting up north(-ish) is The Coffee Daily at 75 Brighton Crescent. Minimalist 1970s interior with original tiled floor and a few retro records and tapes on display. They sell their house Gusto Gran blend concocted with the help of Highlander Coffee – a four-bean mix of Brazilian, Sumatran, Costa Rican and Ethiopian – probably a variation of Highlander’s own Gusto blend? In a flat white, it really held its own to the last drop – slightly spicy, citrusy, with good foundation.

Current opening hours:
Weekdays: 8am to 5pm (closed on Mondays)
Weekends: 9am to 6pm

Geisha Specialty Coffee at 175 Bencoolen Street, #01-55 Burlington Square
“Do you speak Mandarin?” asked Elsie Qian after she’d ushered me into a seat. Mandarin speakers are at an advantage at this joint because both Elsie and Wang Tao are China natives, and Wang Tao enthuses about his beans solely in that language. So i busted out the Chinese chops which last saw the light of day befuddling unfortunate parties in G2G Shanghai negotiations. And he was effusive: they imported very special beans from a supplier in Japan – beans which he believed could not be found anywhere else in Singapore. The beans were then roasted in small batches on-site in a table-top roaster. You could tell from the carbon dioxide blooms that the roasts were very fresh. Singaporeans roast their beans until they are too dark and oily, he said; he stopped before the oils emerged.

The joint was named for the couple’s favourite bean, the “Panama Finca Esmeralda Geisha” – probably referring to the famous Hacienda La Esmeralda farm since Wang Tao said the price of this bean went up after it won a competition in the mid-1990s. Tried this on a Hario V60 pourover at around 80°C. It was very sweet and incredibly fragrant – you could still smell a citrus flower fragrance in the cup 10 minutes after it was emptied. Slight sourness but in a bright citrusy, not a bean-gone-rancid, way. The fragrance actually seemed to intensify as the cup cooled.

Personal preference though was for the Ibrahim Yemen Mocha. This was planted and harvested by traditional methods and sun-dried. Its aroma was quite like a good Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, but on the tongue, nothing like – more full-bodied, complex, an exotic taste like spiced candied fruit. Wang Tao said he tasted cinnamon and a bit of heat. The effect on the tip of the tongue was indeed interesting – like the slight heat of chilli or, i thought, the tingle of grilled fugu fish.

It’s really great that they are reaching a demographic otherwise bypassed by the specialty third wave coffee movement – the aunties and uncles. One uncle asked for something very fragrant and was given a Blue Mountain pourover. His wife puzzled over the lack of milk or sugar, but was assured that the coffee was plenty sweet just taken plain. The uncle then asked for that nice coffee he had in Japan that came in a very small cup and was educated about espresso and espresso-based drinks. Lovely.

Long Black Cafe at 20 Biopolis Way, #01-02 Centros Block – Biopolis. The house blend consists of Brazilian, Indian, Guatemalan and Ethiopian. Had a cold so couldn’t tell how this tasted.

(Tasting notes: no i don’t really know what i’m talking about. Or rather i’m taking a leaf from Ronald Dworkins’ hedgehogs – i know what i’m tasting so telling it as it is, albeit in foolish ignorance of proper coffee-tasting terminology.)

There’s also:
Yahava Koffeeworks at 4 Jalan Gelanggang, Thomson Hill
Brunetti Singapore at 01-35 Tanglin Mall
Pause Cafe in Dominic Khoo’s 28th Fevrier at 5 Jalan Kilang
Toby’s Estate Singapore at 8 Rodyk Street