If you love coffee, this one's for you! There's a wave of new artisan coffee shops popping up all over Singapore. Speciality coffee – also known as “third-wave” coffee – has been on the rise, driven by our appetite for all things hip, cool and deliciously handcrafted. If you work around the Central Business District, here are three specialty coffee places to get your caffeine fix:
1. The Coffee Academics
Coffee lovers, raise your mugs! Coffee Academics has opened a third outlet in Singapore and it’s situated at the heart of the Singapore’s Central Business District in Ocean Financial Centre.
Originally founded in Hong Kong, the chain brewed its first cup for Singapore’s caffeinated community in Scotts Square in 2015 and no one has been able to stop talking about it since. The café has a great selection of coffees – including a “nitro” coffee chilled with nitrogen – as well as several blends from Kenya, Sumatra, Honduras and India.
If you like to have a little nibble with your coffee, try its “cruffins” – the perfect hybrid of buttery flaky croissant and moist muffin.
The Coffee Academics
10 Collyer Quay Lobby
#01-03, Singapore 049315
2. Free the Robot
Where do you like to drink your coffee? If the answer is being surrounded by cute retro toys and quirky designs, you’ll want to check out Free the Robot, a café that shares the same shop space as cocktail bar, Bitters and Love, in the day.
While the vibe is totally casual, the baristas here take their coffee seriously. If you like your coffee with a hint of sweetness, try their vanilla latte, in which they use their own homemade vanilla essence. Also be sure to give their signature brew a taste. This signature brew is a vegan version of the famous bullet coffee, In the signature brew, coconut oil replaces butter, giving it a richer, more slippery texture.
Free the Robot
118 Telok Ayer Street
Singapore 068587
3. Sarnies
Everybody loves this Australian café for its sandwiches but few people know it also serves up a serious cup of coffee. All its beans are roasted in-house, which means you always get the freshest brew every day. You can tell how much love is put into getting that perfect roast; on its website, the café describes its beans as “old friends” – a sign of how much time has gone into getting to know how each variety tastes, whether its translated into a cappuccino or filtered through a French Press.
The café serves up your standard list of drinks, including macchiatos, flat whites, and – of course, cappuccinos. But if you’re feeling a little more adventurous, try asking for their off-menu orange mocha, which is brewed by soaking orange peels in the coffee.
Sarnies
136 Telok Ayer Street
Singapore 068601
There are so many options downtown when it comes to looking for a good cup of coffee, but if you’re in the Raffles Place area, be sure to try out one of these places and tell us what you think!