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You may have seen Borderless Butter pop-ups at fairs and markets across Singapore, and even picked up some butter yourself. Three years after its launch, the homegrown artisanal butter brand has its first physical space – and it's opening this weekend at Sprout @ AMK.
Started by Arden Zhuo, Borderless Butter is known for its flavoured compound butters like chunky miso shiitake, whipped seaweed brown butter, and smoky maple chipotle. Whipped up from a base of French butter, these are typically sold in individual jars or bundled sets you can take home and spread onto toast or toss into pasta, meats, and seafood dishes.
For the first physical space, Arden aims to get more face-to-face time with customers. There's a small tasting booth where you can try a rotating selection of three to four compound butters, and a weekend menu of four sandwiches incorporating Borderless Butter butters – so you'll have a taste of what's possible at home before committing to a jar.
We tried the mala kani tartine ($9.90) and the smoky maple chipotle tamago sando ($8.90). We enjoyed the first, mainly for the punchy, surprisingly numbing XO Mala butter, which Arden made with at least five different spices. The smoky maple chipotle tamago sandwich is a riff on the Japanese tamago sandwich, but with the mayo dialled down and substituted with its housemade smoky chipotle butter. The sandwiches are flavourful and indulgent, but both would benefit from more texture – perhaps chunkier egg and crabsticks, or the refreshing crunch of fresh vegetables – and we wish the mala kani tartine came on a thinner, crunchier base.
The drinks were the surprising highlight. Borderless Butter has an extensive menu of 15 beverages centred on cold brew coffee (brewed in-house with Tiong Hoe coffee beans), matcha, and refreshers. Many have light, zingy flavours and airy foam that help to cut through the richness of the savoury butter sandwiches.
Two are inspired by the yuzu pistachio Borderless Butter: the yuzu pistachio cloud cold brew ($8.50) and yuzu pistachio cloud matcha ($8.90). These drinks have no butter in them, with yuzu bits and pistachio paste doing the work instead. The nutty yet citrusy flavour combination works particularly well with the matcha latte's earthy creaminess, so we highly recommend it.
Other intriguing flavours: the Golden EVOO cloud cold brew ($8), Tokyo Fog matcha cloud ($8.5), and Lime Spritz cold brew ($8).
It's worth knowing that Borderless Butter's Sprout @ AMK space is part of Enterprise Singapore's incubator programme – a one-year, low-risk first outing for the brand. It's less a fully-formed café than an experiment for the brand to test what a physical presence can be. Drop by if you're already in Ang Mo Kio to try the compound butters at the tasting booth. But if you're making a specific trip, then go for the drinks – especially the yuzu pistachio cloud matcha – and take the sandwiches as a bonus rather than the main event.
Borderless Butter is located at 713A Ang Mo Kio Ave 6, #01-05, Singapore 561713. Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10.30am to 7pm; Sat & Sun, 10am to 6pm. Closed on Mondays.
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