Nasi Lemak Bonbons & Kaya Toast Chocolate Among Fun National Day Offerings At Mr Bucket Chocolaterie

Nasi lemak bonbons and Chocolate Dinosaur for National Day

Available till Aug 31, the collection includes Nasi Lemak bonbons (from $32 for eight pcs). Each milk chocolate shell is filled with sambal-spiked caramel, pandan-coconut ganache and peanut praline studded with crispy ikan bilis. Our colleague who tried it said it was interesting to eat if you have an adventurous palate, except there was a little too much sambal in this, which overwhelmed its coconutty notes slightly.

The prettily packaged Singapore Breakfast Set ($53) comprises three locally inspired chocolate bars: Singapore Kaya Toast, Coffee and Umami Salt.

The kaya toast one features creamy kaya caramel encased in pandan-infused dark chocolate, scattered with brown butter breadcrumbs and Maldon sea salt.

Meanwhile, the Umami Salt bar features house-made soy salt flakes using fermented black soybeans from local heritage sauce brand Kwong Woh Hing.

Our colleague found that the milk chocolate in the Umami Salt bar had pleasant caramelly notes, but it was overpowered by the super salty soy sauce flakes dotting it.

Meanwhile, she declared the kaya toast bar the least polarising among the collection, with lemak kaya caramel and crunchy breadcrumbs, while the Coffee one (infused with local brand Flip coffee’s Fazenda Santa Inês blend) featured simple dark chocolate with a bitter caffeine finish.

Exclusive to dine-in customers at Mr Bucket’s Dempsey cafe, the Chocolate Dinosaur ($10) is an upgraded take on the kopitiam beverage. It is made with 45% Sulawesi milk chocolate and oat milk, then topped with chocolate shavings.

Mr Bucket’s DIY Chocolate Bar Workshop also offers nostalgic toppings such as Haw Flakes and Mamee noodle snacks for customers to create their own Singapore-themed bars.

Serangoon Gardens school-grown choc bars

As for the choc bar using Singapore-grown cacao beans? Alas, the ‘Serangoon Gardens’ bars aren’t for sale due to the small amount produced.

Mr Bucket transformed the harvested beans grown at the neighbourhood’s school grounds (the school declined to be named) into 100 commemorative bars of 65% dark chocolate for its “Singapore Also Can” National Day campaign.

Our food editor was gifted one and found it surprisingly delicious. It boasted a fruity complexity and went great with a cup of coffee. More, please.

The farmer behind Mr Bucket’s Singapore-grown cacao

The cacao-growing initiative began with cacao farmer Michael Tan, 70, who previously operated a post-harvest cacao processing facility in Davao, the Philippines, before selling the business in 2023. He had also been germinating cacao seeds at his terrace house behind the school.

He often walked past the school and, noticing a sizeable plot of land on its grounds, wondered if he could grow the trees there instead.
Although Michael has worked with Mr Bucket since 2020, the school cacao plantation was initially an initiative between him and the school. The chocolate brand joined the project later.

“My brother-in-law suggested, ‘Why don’t you approach the principal and ask whether she would give you some space to grow cacao trees?’” he shared with 8days.sg. 

After receiving the school’s approval, Michael transplanted the one-year-old cacao seedlings to a 350 sqm plot on campus in July 2021. A cacao tree takes around three to five years to bear fruit.

14 cacao trees in Serangoon Gardens

The soil first had to be remediated (treated to create suitable growing conditions) to support the cacao trees, with Mr Bucket later supplying discarded cacao shells as natural fertiliser.

Today, 14 of the now six-year-old trees are bearing fruit. Three cacao varieties are grown there, all originating from Davao in the Philippines.

The pods are harvested at least once every fortnight during the harvest season from January to March.

The initiative was intended to facilitate student learning, with the school’s gardeners helping to maintain the trees.

Once harvested, the beans were processed by Mr Bucket.

Michael adds: “This is a testament that [cacao trees] can actually grow in Singapore.”

The National Day collection is available till end Aug at Mr Bucket Chocolaterie #01-03/04, 13 Dempsey Rd, S249674 and #B2-41 Takashimaya Shopping Centre, 391A Orchard Rd, S238873. It also has retail stores at Changi Airport Terminals 1 and 3. More info via website and Instagram.

Photos: Mr Bucket Chocolaterie