Cream

Café and coffee roastery Cream is exactly what its name implies: a serene space, airy and light-filled, swathed in palettes of pale wood and off-whites. It’s almost too zen for a coffee roastery – but that’s only because all the action takes place in a room closed off behind the coffee counter, where the machine is located. Cream is an evolution of The Roast Things, one of the city’s earliest micro-roasters, founded and run by Chiam Tow Jin and Ving Lim. Ving, an expert at pour overs and siphon brewing, is the lead roaster while Jin is the resident cupper, buyer and a certified coffee judge.

Like all specialty coffee roasters, the beans are roasted medium to medium dark to avoid burning their natural flavours, a quality best sampled through Cream’s innovative way of serving filtered coffee. There will be two versions of your drink, hot and iced, and you’d be surprised how the temperature can highlight the different characteristics of the beans. It’s a testament to the roasters’ craft and skill that they’re able to bring out those nuanced flavours. Here at Cream, their roasts are a good balance of fruit acidity and sweetness.

For filtered coffee, you can choose from a selection of single origin beans. Highlights include the Tanzania Kanji Lalji Peaberry, which has a dense body with hints of blackcurrant, and the Kirinyaga Kiangoi from Kenya, noted for its crisp acidity. While filtered coffee might take on an almost tea-like body, go for the espresso-based coffee if you prefer something more robust. Their Awesome 2 espresso blend (a mix of Brazilian and Colombian beans) is one of their top sellers, which they supply to other cafés.

Cream also serves cold brew coffee two ways – you can choose either black or the milkbased brew. You’ll also find premium loose leaf tea from Yunnan (oolong, raw pu er, pu er and white tea), along with a small selection of cakes and sandwiches.