It’s the coffee lovers playground this weekend at Singapore Coffee Festival! Presented by DBS, head in first to level 1 and register for your DBS Coffee Festival Passport. The friendly folks at the DBS booth will give you a run down on what you can do—basically there’s a bunch of activities you can do to support recycling, upcycling, social causes and business talks. Visiting and taking part in these activities lets you collect stamps which you can use to exchange for a reusable DBS mug (2 stamps) and get a free coffee (4 stamps).
The event space…
If you visited Singapore Coffee Festival 2016, it was really cramped and for most of us, the queue to get into the event was atrocious. This year the event has moved to the spacious Marina Bay Cruise Centre which is just a short walk from Marina South Pier MRT. If you’re not up for the 10 minute walk, you can borrow a Mobike at the MRT and ride it to the event. Although with rather scenic views and a nice breeze along the way, most of us chose to take the short stroll.
Once at the event, there’s ticket booths both up and downstairs. This can be the only confusing part because if you’re a pass holder, you still need to go to level 2 to exchange it for an entry wristband and the counter to approach for pass holders kept changing from day to day for some odd reason. But apart from that, getting tickets and the entry goodie bag was a rather smooth process, which is great and means more time can be spent in the event.
Another downside of the event space, you need to walk out of the event and use the escalators outside to go between levels. Which means more bag checks with every entry. I don’t see why the escalators at the back of the event space wasn’t just used to let everyone move between the two levels.
Although there were queues at booths with everyone lining up to get their free samples, the space was big enough to accommodate the snaking lines without too blockage to walking paths.
Popular booths…
The Coffee Academics (level 2) had a super long queue when we visited the 2nd time on Saturday. A lot of people seemed to be eyeing the Coffee-in-a-cone, which baffled us, cos it’s available at their Raffles City outlet.
Grounded Pleasures (level 2) was pleasing the crowd with their range of satisfying chocolate drinks too. Our favourites were the Noir and Chilli Chocolate drinks. Try the Chilli option if you’re looking for a little pick me up, the chilli doesn’t burn on the tongue, but warms up your throat and chest gradually. A favourite amongst everyone we talked to was also the French Mint chocolate—imagine… liquid After Eights!
Oriole Coffee (level 1) was a hit with the public with their usual coffee offerings at slightly cheaper prices. I must say, I loved their set up at the festival. Branding done well!
Foxhole Cafe (level 1) had a range of Instagram worthy drinks and treats. Looked like the Watermelon Soft Serve was a hit with the crowd.
Some of the other interesting food and drink options are pictured below…
Other things to look out for include Nitro Coffee variations. If you haven’t tried it, it’s Cold Brew on tap fused with nitrogen. Looks like a beer when settled, drink it straight away for a frothy taste.
If you’re heading to Singapore Coffee Festival with someone that doesn’t like coffee, there’s beer, wine and sake on show too! Check out Groundstar (level 2) for premium Sake.
Check out the range of books and calligraphy available as well.
The outdoor area (level 1) includes a few food outlets like Hyde & Co., a bar and live music!
Overall, a good event even though this year didn’t seem to have as many “wow-factor” offerings and more just a collection of coffee curated in one space.
Singapore Coffee Festival
Dates: 3 – 6 August 2017
Time: 10:00am – 10:00pm
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