š chapter nine : autumn 2026 - curiosity got the better of us
- big short coffee
- 2 hours ago
- 13 min read
a new season is here and we may have gotten a little carried away with this one.
weāve been knee-deep in nomaās teachings lately, learning from the way they take familiar ingredients apart, explore them from every angle and slowly build them back into something brand new. it has changed the way we think about flavour and inspired us to look more closely at how a single ingredient can be treated and used in different ways.
back at our little lab, weāve been tinkering with our gadgets, trying out new equipment and revisiting a few techniques from old favourites. weāre also introducing our second soft serve, which we really hope youāll love as much as we do.
this might be one of our most technically complex menus yet. there are more layers, textures and little finishing touches, with many of the components made from scratch over several stages. it has taken plenty of research, testing and trial and error to bring everything together, but we had a lot of fun along the way.
chapter nine is a mix of new lessons, old ideas given another chance and plenty of curiosity. we hope youāll have as much fun drinking it as we did figuring it all out š
š autumn 2026 : this seasonās coffee trio
this chapter, weāre working with two single origins from brazil and ethiopia, alongside our big short blend. each one brings something quite different, from rich and chocolatey to bright and delicate.
š§š·šØš“ big short blend (brazil x colombia)
dark grape jam : muscovado : milk chocolate
our big short blend remains the same this season: 50% fazenda rio verde from brazil and 50% el indio from colombia. both coffees go through a natural process, giving the blend plenty of sweetness, body and ripe fruit flavour.
the brazil brings structure and chocolatey depth, while the colombia adds a little more fruitiness and jammy sweetness. it is a combination we love, so we kept it around as the familiar coffee base for several drinks in this chapter.
fazenda rio verde, brazil
š§š· rancho grande (brazil)
dark rum : hazelnut praline : dulce de leche : chocolate malt
rancho grande comes from minas gerais, brazil, and is grown at around 950 metres above sea level. it goes through a natural process, where the coffee cherries are dried whole with the fruit still surrounding the seed. this tends to bring out more sweetness, body and fruitiness in the final coffee. it is rich, sweet and almost dessert-like with plenty of chocolate and caramel notes.Ā
rancho grande, brazil
šŖš¹ mewa nensebo (ethiopia)
roasted nuts : black tea : stone fruitĀ
mewa nensebo comes from nensebo in west arsi, ethiopia, and is grown between 1,800 and 2,000 metres above sea level. the cooler conditions at this elevation allow the coffee cherries to mature more slowly, giving them more time to develop sweetness and complexity.
this coffee goes through a fully washed process, where the fruit is removed before the beans are washed and dried. this usually produces a cleaner and more delicate cup, allowing the brighter flavours of the coffee to come through.
mewa nensebo, ethiopia
š« cacao cola
when we travelled to japan in march, we made a quick stop at iyoshi cola, a craft cola shop thatās been on our bucket list since forever. they had a limited-edition cacao cola at the time that we tried and it turned out to be our favourite! it had a very distinct cacao flavour that was fruity and almost berry-like. till now, we havenāt been able to stop thinking about it.
if you enjoyed our coffee cola from a few chapters ago, youāll probably like this one too. weād like to say that cacao cola is its darker, more chocolatey sibling.
for our version of cacao cola, we made a cold brew concentrate with our rancho grande beans. this chocolatey coffee felt like the ideal
base to hold all the cacao and spice we wanted to add in.Ā
around the same period, we had also been getting curious about coffee chaff. chaff is the thin, papery skin around a raw coffee bean. when the beans are roasted, the chaff dries out and flakes off, leaving behind piles of what is usually discarded as a byproduct. we steeped some in hot water just to see what it would taste like and turns out, it makes a pretty good tea! it had a light, toasty flavour, and one of our team members even said it tasted like the free barley tea you get at kbbq restaurants.
that little experiment gave us an idea for this drink. since the chaff brought a light, roasty flavour to the tea, we figured it could do the same in a cola. we went back to our previous cola base and reworked it, developing this version around the flavours we found in the chaff tea.
this time, we sous vide 15 different botanicals with the addition of cacao nibs and coffee chaff to make an in-house concentrated cola syrup. we tasted the syrup and noticed that the chaff did indeed add another layer of roastiness.
the pink honeycomb-shaped garnish resting on top is made from tempered ruby chocolate, which has a naturally fruity and slightly tangy flavour. the little drops piped onto it are a salted plum sea moss gel that we also make in-house.
sea moss is quite mild on its own, although using too much can bring out a slightly briny flavour. we thought salted plums would be the perfect match for it, bringing sweet, salty and sour into the gel.Ā
carefully lift the ruby chocolate off first, give the cola a good mix and take a few sips on its own. then have a bite of the chocolate as a chaser. the fruity ruby chocolate and salted plum would bring out a different side of the cacao cola with each bite and sip.
šŖø kelp popcorn
noma has been on our bucket list for a very long time. the copenhagen restaurant has been named number one on the worldās 50 best restaurants list five times and we have always been curious about the way they find completely new possibilities in familiar ingredients.
when noma released their book, a guide to building flavour,Ā we knew we had to get a copy. one recipe showed how kelp could be turned into one of their signature flavouring agents through several stages. it is roasted, sous vide for an hour, infused for another 12 hours and finally dehydrated. it was a lot of work for one ingredient but that was exactly what made it so interesting.
kelp popcorn takes a lot of inspiration from what we learned about kelp in the book. we use it in two different forms to bring a deep savouriness to both the drink and the little popcorn snack on top.
first, we make a kelp dashi and slowly reduce it into a rich kelp butterscotch, which is infused with pu-erh tea at the bottom of the cup. whenever we make it, the kitchen fills with this deeply savoury, umami fragrance. the earthiness of the tea and savouriness of the kelp help balance the sweetness of the butterscotch.
we also pop all our popcorn fresh in-house. some of it is infused into fresh milk, giving the drink a creamy, buttery and slightly toasty flavour. it is then topped with a freddo espresso made from our big short blend. freddo espresso is a strong, chilled coffee that we emulsify until it becomes smooth, thick and foamy. it gives a punchier coffee flavour before everything is mixed together.
we also dehydrate the kelp dashi and turn it into a kelp salt. we then toss it through more of our freshly popped popcorn to give each piece a salty and savoury coating to snack on as you drink.
try the freddo espresso on its own first, then mix it through the popcorn milk and kelp butterscotch at the bottom. have a few pieces of kelp popcorn between sips for even more of that sweet, salty and savoury combination.
šµ pandancha
while working on king of chendol, we went down a bit of a rabbit hole trying all kinds of pandan powders. after plenty of tasting, we found one with an earthy pandan flavour that we really loved. we werenāt sure exactly what we would be using it for, but we kept it around.Ā
sometime later while developing the jasmine milk tea base for pandancha in our r&d lab, we decided to add some of the pandan powder just to see how it would turn out. the pandan became incredibly smooth and complemented the jasmine tea and milk so well! it is also what gives the jasmine milk tea base its light green colour.
another part of the idea came from a trip to thailand, where we downed copious amounts of thai iced milk tea in the sweltering heat. one of our orders came with a dessert-like āsnowā that was light, fluffy and melted almost instantly in the mouth. we loved how it made such a iconic drink feel completely different and wanted to create a coffee version of that texture.
we had also just gotten a new piece of equipment that allowed us to make snow ice, so this drink became our first time experimenting with it. after testing a few different recipes, we settled on a coffee snow base made with our rancho grande beans. it comes off the machine in soft, delicate flakes and falls over the pandan jasmine milk tea. it is light and fluffy enough to melt on your tongue.
at the bottom is our house-made pandan muah chee with gula melaka, followed by a smooth purple sweet potato jam. we steam the sweet potato, then slowly cook it down with coconut milk and fresh milk until it becomes silky and scoopable.
try a little of the coffee snow on its own first, then give everything a good mix. youāll get light coffee snow, silky purple sweet potato jam and chewy gula melaka muah chee together with the earthy, fragrant pandan jasmine milk tea. itās one part drink, other part dessert and a whole lot of fun to eat!
š„„ biko (r)ice-cream
biko holds a special place in our teamās memories. one of us remembers eating it while visiting family in the philippines more than ten years ago. it brought back fond memories of the biko he ate as a child when we made our own version.
biko is a traditional filipino rice cake made with malagkit, or glutinous rice, coconut milk and brown sugar. for this soft serve, there are three main parts to it.Ā
first, the making of our biko rice. we roast banana leaves ourselves to bring out the smoky aroma, then add them to the glutinous rice as it cooks through with coconut milk.
next is the coffee soft serve, made with our big short blend espresso, coconut milk and a coconut caramel made with indian jaggery sugar. we also fold some of the cooked biko rice directly into the soft serve base, adding the fragrance of coconut throughout.
the brown topping is latik, a traditional filipino coconut topping. we make ours from scratch by slowly cooking down thai coconut milk until it separates and forms little golden coconut curds. we mix in coconut shreds during cooking for even more fragrance and crunch.
when we put biko (r)ice cream together, itās a bed of biko rice at the bottom, a light sprinkling of latik, a generous swirl of soft serve, then more latik on top. try to dig all the way to the bottom with each spoonful so you get a little bit of everything. itās creamy, smoky, caramelised, chewy and very, very coconutty.
š¬ doctor's orders
this drink started with a recent easter trip to perth where we brought a few friends to visit one of our hometowns. we took them around some of our usual spots in southern perth, including a chocolate factory. and of course, we left with a giant bag of bonbons and several candy bars. the chocolate orange bar ended up being our favourite of the lot.
that holiday also turned out to be one of our most chaotic trips. on easter night, our airbnb was cancelled just five minutes before check-in. we spent the next few hours scrambling to sort out our accommodation, but finding somewhere for five people to stay over easter weekend was nearly impossible.
eventually, we found a resort with two rooms available online. we booked them, paid and thought the nightmare was finally over. when we arrived, the concierge told us she had no idea how we had managed to book two rooms because only one was actually available. after everything that had already happened, we just stood at the counter completely speechless and flabbergasted. it felt like the cherry on top of an already disastrous day.
while we were trying to work out what to do next, a kind woman nearby overheard our conversation. she told us that she owned one of the rooms at the resort and offered to let us stay there. we still cannot believe how lucky we were to meet someone so generous at exactly the right time.
we finally made it to our room that night and opened the chocolate orange bar we had bought earlier that day. eating it was the first ordinary moment weād had in hours and everything felt alright again. we wanted to turn the memory of that day into a drink so that weād always have something to remember the trip by.
doctorās orders is our clarified take on chocolate orange. we combine our big short blend espresso with freshly squeezed blood orange and fresh orange juice, lapsang souchong tea and chocolate milk. we then leave this coffee blend to clarify overnight. the milk separates and traps the heavier particles as it slowly filters through everything, turning the chocolate milk into a crystal-clear drink with a silky texture.
doctorās orders got its name much later, while we were figuring out how to finish the drink. we wanted to add a small sweet bite at the end, so we decided on freeze-dried candies. when they came out looking like little pills, the rest of the concept began to fall into place. weāve always wanted to serve a garnish in one of those little amber bottles, and this finally felt like the right chance.
try the drink on its own first. youāll taste the chocolate, followed by a lingering citrus aroma from the orange and a light toastiness from the espresso and smoky tea. then, have it with the toasted malt for a deeper aroma. finish by popping the freeze-dried candy into your mouth for a final bit of crunch and sweetness. doctorās orders!
š mont blanc 9.0
weāre nine chapters in and our mont blanc is still here. with every new season, we ask ourselves what we can refine and learn from a drink that we love. for mont blanc 9.0, the biggest change starts with the coffee. this season, we use mewa nensebo from ethiopia to give the cold brew a brighter, more delicate flavour.Ā
this seasonās french vanilla bean cream also has a slightly saltier edge. we added a small amount of salt to balance its richness and bring out more of the vanilla, citrus and nutmeg. you may also notice little black and orange specks dusted over the top. these come from dehydrated vanilla bean seeds and orange peel.
we noticed that mont blancs have been having a bit of a moment recently, and everyone seems to have their own idea of where to find a good one and what the cream should be like. for us at big short, weāve always preferred a softer cream thatās light on the palate.
we use a particularly rich french cream with a high milk-fat content, which naturally gives us the body and richness we want without having to whip it into something overly dense or heavy. this helps us keep the texture soft and airy and doesnāt leave a heavy or oily aftertaste.
our cream floats over the cold brew rather than sitting as a thick layer on top, and both meld together naturally with every sip. you still get that soft milky richness from the cream, followed by the coffee coming through underneath.
the final touch is something you smell rather than taste directly. we use our rotary evaporator to distil mace into a hydrosol, capturing its warm and delicate aroma in a clear, fragrant liquid.
mace and nutmeg actually come from the same fruit. nutmeg is the seed, while mace is the thin, lacy covering wrapped around it. they share a similar warmth, but mace is lighter, more floral and a little peppery.
just before serving, we spray the mace hydrosol twice over the drink and onto the back of your hand. take a moment to smell it before your first sip, then drink the cold brew through the cream. each sip slowly brings together the coffee, airy vanilla cream, citrus and warm spice.
š„ kiwi fairy
a few seasons ago while we were working on tepache club, we went through a phase of experimenting with different fermentation ābugs.ā one of them was a carrot bug. it didnāt quite work for what we were making at the time, so we set the idea aside. eventually, we had to let the bug go too. keeping a living ferment going requires regular care, and we simply did not have enough space for it in our little joo chiat coffee bar.
we never completely forgot about it though. fermentation involves plenty of trial and error, and sometimes an idea that does not work for one drink just needs another chance in a different season. when we were thinking about fruits for this menu, we knew we had to bring out kiwi and its bright, tangy flavour. we thought it might finally be the right match for our carrot bug.
a ābugā is a living fermentation starter that helps kickstart the fermentation process. we started a new carrot bug from scratch and cultivated it in-house, then used it to ferment whole kiwis with roasted cardamom, coriander seeds, wildflower honey and tea for two days. as everything ferments, the flavours develop more depth, acidity and complexity.
for the tea, we combine magnolia oolong with snow chrysanthemum. the magnolia oolong brings a soft floral fragrance, while the chrysanthemum adds a gentle, slightly earthy layer. together with the roasted spices, they bring back some of the floral and spiced qualities we loved in tepache club, but in a completely different drink.
kiwi fairy is refreshing, fruity and lightly fermented, with floral aromas from the tea and warmth from the cardamom and coriander. we finish it with a piece of dehydrated starfruit. no special instructions for this one, just sip and enjoy it as it is! it is also tea-based, so bring along that one friend who does not like coffee.
āļø chapter ten - coming soon!
chapter nine has been one of our most ambitious r&d journeys yet. weāve learned from people we admire, went back to ideas that were not quite ready the first time and found new ways to use the techniques we already love. some things worked immediately, plenty did not, but that is all part of figuring out what comes next.
this is also our first new seasonal menu since opening our second coffee bar at beach road. launching a new chapter across two spaces was a little scary, but it still feels exciting getting to share these drinks from two different homes.
you can try chapter nine at both outlets! if you have not visited our newest space yet, youāll find us at 273 beach road, #01-01, a short walk from bugis mrt exit f through duo.
meanwhile, our list of ideas for chapter ten is already growing. there are new ingredients we want to explore, more equipment to figure out and a few experiments quietly bubbling away in the background. we do not quite know where they will lead yet, but that is usually where the fun begins.
see you this season, and in the next one too! š
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