O’Brew Culture – NEW Korean Dalgona Specialty Cafe With Low-Carb Cheesecake, At Tampines 1

8:18 PM | Labels: asian cuisine, asian food Recipes, asian recipes, DanielFoodDiary.com, eating in singapore, Singapore Food, singapore Food recipes, singapre Recipes

Dalgona Coffee is known as the “Quarantine Drink” during the Covid-19 outbreak as we see this viral drink trending on various social media platforms.

In fact, the original “Dalgona” or “Ppopgi” in Korean actually refers to the honeycomb-like, crunchy toffee street snack that is popular in South Korea in the 1970s.

This preparation method and recipe of Dalgona Coffee was first created in 2004 at Hon Kee Cafe in Macau.

It is also known as 400 Times Coffee (because it is whipped 400 times), popularised by South Koreans after it was featured on one of their TV shows.

Even though Dalgona Coffee is created by whipping equal volumes of instant coffee powder, sugar, and hot water and does not contain the original “Dalgona”, it has a similar taste profile as the toffee snack and hence the name.

Specialising in Korean Dalgona Coffee, O’Brew Culture has a small seating area with 3 tables and is located on the 2nd storey of Tampines 1 (beside The Alley).

Service is swift and prompt considering that it is solely managed by a single staff from taking orders to drinks preparation.

(As the friendly Korean barista has hearing impairment, simply smile and point to the items on the menu to make your orders.)

Their menu focuses on artisanal coffee with the usual selection such as Espresso ($3), Long Black ($4) and White ($5), and interesting options such as Rose/ Vanilla/ Hazelnut Coffee ($5.50), Rose Chocolate ($6), Vanilla Pistachio ($5.50) and Dalgona ($5.90).

Iced versions are available at an additional $1.

Instead of the usual Dalgona Coffee ($5.90), interesting flavours include Matcha, Chocolate and Rose Milk, topped with the traditional Dalgona snack.

The Dalgona snack is first created by mixing sugar and baking soda until it becomes brown and crunchy before breaking it into smaller pieces as a topping here.

I ordered both the Dalgona Matcha ($5.90) and Dalgona Rose Milk ($5.90) that come in pretty shades of green and pink respectively.

Sprinkled with Dalgona pieces on top, the Dalgona Matcha was the preferred drink, adding some malted, caramelised sweetness to the underly bitter matcha drink, prepared using Uji Matcha powder.

The floral-scented Dalgona Rose Milk, on the other hand tasted like a Korean version of our local Bandung, which is a little on the sweeter side.

Desserts such as Butter Croissant ($3.90), Chocolate Danish ($3.90), Brownies ($6.90) and Cakes ($6.90 – $7.90) are also available.

Low carb and flourless? I was sold.

The Low-carb, flourless Japanese-style Cheesecake ($6.90) is made using cream, cheese, grated cheese, unsalted butter, eggs, pink salt, lemon juice and vanilla extract.

The guilt-free dessert was light and fluffy like most Japanese desserts, with a tinge of citrus-ness from the lemon.

It complemented well with the more flavourful Dalgona drinks on their menu.