☀️ chapter five : summer 2025 - one year, one wild ride 🕵️

it’s almost been a year since we opened our little shop in joo chiat. it's wild we have made it to this mark, our little experiment has turned into something bigger than we ever imagined!

last season has been the busiest ever. our spring menu went a little viral, and suddenly we found ourselves doing rounds of media interviews in between making drinks. 

our duck shit miso drink went crazy, we introduced matcha to our menu for the first time and it’s opened up a whole new world for us, bubbles were super fun and there was so many posts about the cherrywood smoke too. we truly feel humbled and amazed by all your posts, comments and shares, we thank you all so much. 

in the lab, we’ve been slowly improving, new machines, new techniques, more refinements. we’ve been travelling, teaching ourselves, researching, trying to soak up as much as we can to think and develop ourselves and our team to continue to grow. 

we’re more focused than ever, we're getting better at what we do & pushing ourselves creatively. thanks for being here with us, we hope you enjoy the next chapter in our story! 💙

☀️ summer 2025 new seasons coffee

this season, we’ve brought in three single origins. one from brazil and two from columbia. each one is distinct, but together they give us a beautiful spectrum to work with, one is approachable, one is complex, and one is completely crazy and super high quality.

we’ve been tasting, tweaking, and reworking our recipes to let their natural flavours shine in different ways: in cold brew, as espresso, clarified, as a jelly, and in our lab we developed a new technique thats a whole new way to extract coffee.

we hope you love them!

🇧🇷 favela : brazil

this is brazil at its best, dark chocolate, toasted nuts, and a smooth, structured sweetness we love. it’s low in acidity, high in flavour, like a hug in cold brew form.

this yellow bourbon varietal comes from carmo de minas, an area known for producing some of brazil’s highest quality specialty lots. grown at altitudes between 1000 and 1300 meters above sea level, the cherries are nurtured in a climate of warm days and cool nights, which allows sugars to develop slowly and evenly.

the farmers use a natural process, where the coffee cherries are hand-picked at peak ripeness and then dried whole under the sun. this method allows the fruit to ferment slightly around the seed, intensifying the body and boosting the chocolate and nutty sweetness.

this coffee shines in our latest version of the mont blanc v5.0. it holds its own beautifully under layers of nutmeg spiced vanilla cream, orange and muscovado sugar. 

carmo de minas, brazil

🇨🇴 ruby urbano : columbia 

ruby urbano is bright & juicy, we’re tasting red currant, yellow stonefruit, and a demerara sweetness that lingers like candy. it’s vibrant, clean, and complex, with that high-altitude clarity we love.

this particular lot comes from el diviso, a farm located in the lush hills of la unión, nariño, one of colombia’s most prized coffee regions. grown at 1600 meters above sea level, the cherries ripen in warm days and cool nights, which helps develop dense sugars and layered acidity.

it’s a washed process coffee, where the fruit surrounding the bean is carefully removed, fermented in water, and fully washed before sun drying. this method highlights the coffee’s clarity and lets its natural brightness shine through.

we’re using ruby urbano in our more fruity and playful drinks like mango sticky rice & tickled pink, where that red currant and stonefruit depth can really stand out. 

el diviso, la unión, nariño, colombia 

🇨🇴 colombia quebraditas

this coffee is absolutely unhinged and is nothing like we have ever tried before. think passionfruit, strawberry compote, and a rich, banoffee pie sweetness. it’s wild, juicy, and packed with so much flavour we still can't wrap our heads around it.

the name quebraditas means “little ravines” in spanish, probably a nod to the steep, broken hillsides where this coffee grows in the high-altitude region of huila, colombia.

the farmer has developed a completely unique processing technique for this coffee. this lot uses a yeast-inoculated mossto-washed process, a technique that blends art and science to bring out insane clarity and depth, it’s complicated and expensive to process with this method, we pay almost double the price per kilo compared to our regular beans.

first, the mucilage juice, or mossto, is collected after pulping and fermented with a specific strain of yeast. then, the coffee is soaked in this juice, infusing it with fruit complexity and sweetness. after fermentation, it’s fully washed and dried.

what you get is a coffee that’s clean, tropical, and very expressive, less funky than an anaerobic, but way louder than a classic washed. this is one of the most exciting and rare coffees we’ve ever used, and we built our super special jc confidential drink around it this season.

we have been quietly playing with new extraction techniques which allow us to create a super smooth and delicious coffee, we're first launching it with this coffee!

huila, colombia

🍵 crema al matcha

this drink became a bit of a quiet favourite last season, and we knew we had to bring it back, but with a twist to improve it.

we first created crema al matcha after a trip to japan, where we were wandering between teahouses, sipping different grades of matcha and watching how much care goes into every step of the process. we were blown away by the depth and umami in really good uji matcha, and we wanted to find a way to make something that kept that intensity, but make it fun and refreshing for hot days.

we found a ceremonial grade uji matcha from kyoto. it’s grassy, a little bitter, umami, and has that wild bright green glow we love so much. we whisk it with fresh milk, condensed milk, vanilla beans from madagascar, and a pinch of salt, then churn it until it turns into this soft, airy, icy slush. it kinda puffs up and feels like a matcha cloud.

uji, kyoto, japan

last season we topped it with our coffee honeycomb. this time, we’re going a bit more roasty, a housemade roasted sesame brittle. it adds warmth, crunch, and a deep, nutty sweetness that pairs beautifully with the matcha’s earthiness.

we’re drinking this one ourselves at the end of a long shift in the bar. it’s become one of our favourites, and we hope you love it too.

💗 tickled pink

this one is soft, fruity, and complex. the name comes from an old phrase, “tickled pink” which means to be unexpectedly delighted. that’s how we felt the first time we tried it!

we start by layering in a scoop of cold brew jelly, a wobbly, coffee jelly we make using a little brown sugar and salt. it sets firm but melts slowly as you drink, releasing flavour and adding body with each sip.

on top of that, we shake fresh milk & pink guava with an absolutely delicious camellia oolong from southern fujian, china, along with a little wildflower honey from the rare honey company. 

it’s floral, a little tangy and a little creamy. the camellia oolong adds warmth and softness, while the pink guava brings a fresh tropical acidity that keeps everything bright.

once poured over the jelly, we finish the drink with a little ruby chocolate that we microplane on top. it adds a hint of berry-like sweetness and gives the drink a soft pastel finish.

this drink is super textural and layered, theres the creaminess of the milk, the fruit and florals of the tea, the structure of the jelly, and that little chocolate bit on top. we hope you enjoy it!

🥭 mango sticky rice

this one took us months. we lost count of how many rounds we did in the lab, testing ratios, adjusting sous vide temperatures, balancing the sweetness, tweaking how we toast and cook the rice. we were obsessed with getting it right. we’re so proud to share it with you.

earlier this year we were lucky to go to bangkok for a long weekend, we kept eating mango sticky rice for dessert and we kept thinking how we could take this inspiration and turn it into a coffee.  

it starts with a blend of ruby urbano cold brew and a mango & fresh pandan infusion that we sous vide for two hours to infuse. on top of that is our sticky rice cream, made with roasted glutinous rice, coconut milk, gula melaka, and french cream. it’s toasty, rich, and carries that signature chewy-rice aroma in a smooth, silky form.

to finish, we dust the top with more pandan and a spoonful of salted roasted mung beans. 

it’s a drink that looks simple, but behind the scenes it’s one of the most challenging drinks we’ve made and we’re so happy with how it turned out.

please try it out, its one of our favourites this season.

🥧 key lime pie

we started working on this drink a few menus ago, and at first, we couldn’t get it right.

the flavour balance was tricky. the milk kept splitting in weird ways and the clarification was cloudy. the lime was either too sharp or too soft. every time we thought we had it, something wasn't right. so we parked it. but we couldn’t stop thinking about it.

this season, we brought it back, and we finally cracked it.

key lime pie is a clarified coffee built around our big short espresso 2.0 blend, key lime, honey black tea, clarified pineapple juice, and our house-made falernum syrup—infused with ginger, cloves, lime zest and vanilla. we clarify the entire mix with a biscuit milk wash. it smooths the edges and adds that buttery, crumbly note you find in the crust of a real key lime pie.

its bright, smooth, and citrusy with a creamy, dessert-like finish with the fat from the milk thats left behind. it looks like a clear iced tea but tastes like a slice of pie.

we serve it over a big ice cube, with a kiss of italian meringue we whip, pipe and bake at the shop from scratch on top. 

this drink was a long process, full of failed trials, but we’re so proud of how it turned out. please drink it slowly.

🍍 tepache club

this is one of the wildest drinks we’ve ever made.

we’re not really sure what happened in the r&d lab, but the team have lost their minds. there are multiple natural fermentions, a clarified juice, a mineral-heavy tea, a spiced syrup, and three types of pineapple, using the whole pineapple with none wasted. it’s complicated, and totally worth it.

in the lab we were playing around with making tepache, and testing how long we can push the fermentation. we love natural wine, especially orange wine, and perhaps the funkier the better, and boy this one is pretty funky!

it begins with our house-made tepache we make in fermentation jars behind the bar. it’s a traditional mexican fermented pineapple drink made from fresh pineapple skin, brown sugar, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. we ferment it for three to four days until it’s lightly fizzy, tangy, and a little funky from the natural yeasts on the pineapple.

the flesh of the pineapple we juice, and turn it into a clarified pineapple juice, add a touch of bergamot-orange syrup, and throw in a strong brew of da hong pao oolong tea.

the tea in this drink is something really special too. this da hong pao is a legendary rock oolong grown in the wuyi mountains of fujian, china. these mountains produce slow-grown, deeply expressive teas. 

da hong pao is oxidised and charcoal roasted, which gives it toasty flavours while still being a little fruity, with notes of roasted stonefruit & spice. adding this tea gives the tepache its depth, we think it might be the secret star of this drink. this is one for our friends who don’t drink coffee, we hope you enjoy it!

🕵️ jc confidential

we developed a new extraction technique this season, something we haven’t seen anywhere else before, this drink is highly confidential, so please don't tell anyone!

we have been thinking about how to improve the extraction process of coffee. everyone has been doing it the same way for many years, and we want to push ourselves to create and improve these basic processes. 

we developed an enzymatic extraction technique using two sorts of natural enzymes. one gently breaks down the coffee bean cell walls, allowing us to open up the molecular structure, then another enzyme extracts and unlocks flavour compounds and sugars that normally stay trapped within the coffee and then discarded with the spent grinds. 

the result is our colombia quebraditas, it’s so silky, floral, complex, with no sharp edges and a long, lingering finish. we think it's one of the best coffees we've ever made and we are super proud of our team for developing it. 

to complement this special coffee, we make a yellow plum & lemon leaf infusion. first up we take yellow plum, fresh lemon leaves from our lemon tree at home, add a touch of yuzu juice, seal it up and gently sous vide for two hours. the low heat infusion coaxes out the perfume of the lemon leaves and softens the plum’s tartness. 

we mix this infused plum with the enzymatic extracted coffee and a splash of earl grey tea, add a heap of dry ice to add a light carbonation, then pour it over ice. 

this is our most experimental coffee we've ever made, we hope you enjoy it!

🍊 mont blanc v5.0

our mont blanc has been with us since chapter one, and it’s become one of our most loved drinks, some people come and get one every day. we’ve kept it on the menu, but each season we’ve gone back in and reworked it, refining the layers, adjusting the structure, and tweaking the coffee to make it better every time.

this version uses a new season coffee: favela, a beautiful single origin from brazil with notes of dark chocolate, black tea, and toasted nuts. it’s smooth, structured, and brings more warmth and depth to the drink, perfect for building flavour on top.

at the base, we stir favela cold brew with our house-made muscovado syrup. it’s dark, rich, and citrusy, a little like marmalade stirred into brown sugar.

then comes the cream. we use cream from france, cold infused with madagascar vanilla bean, nutmeg, and more orange zest. it’s soft, sweet, a little spiced, and floats perfectly on top of the drink like a layer of mousse.

to finish, we sprinkle a touch of nutmeg and garnish with a dehydrated orange slice. no straw needed. just drink it through the cream. let it all mix slowly as the ice melts. it’s still the mont blanc you know, just new and improved. we hope you enjoy version five!

🍂 chapter six - autumn 2025 - coming soon!

this season feels like a big one for us, we pushed ourselves harder than ever. from new extractions to naturally fermented ingredients, we’re learning more each day about what’s possible.

thank you for being part of this little journey, sharing your ideas, bringing your friends, and filling up our tiny bar with big energy. we can’t wait to show you what’s next.

seeya soon! 💙