New Café From Jakarta Sells Bandung Cruffin & Gula Melaka Brûlée Latte In S'pore

The spacious cafe takes over a defunct Adidas boutique, next to the mall’s taxi stand. At first glance, the bright, cheerful airy space is similar to other coffee chains like The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. There are cosy booth seats, low sofas and long tables for larger groups.

While the cafe serves standard fare like coffee, tea and light snacks like sandwiches and cruffins, the nosh here come with an Asian twist. The coffee here is brewed with mostly single origin beans like Brazil Cerrado, Sumatera Lintong and Java Ciwidey, sourced from Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia. The latter’s coffee beans produce lighter brews than the robust kopitiam kopi in Singapore, as they have lower acidity.

You can opt to have your coffee brewed using a pour over method with a V60 dripper. The slow dripping ‘pulls’ the flavour from coffee beans, so we could better appreciate the delicate, fruity flavour of Maxx’s lighter brews like the Java Ciwidey.

Other than traditional coffee, there are also fun drinks like a freddo (Greek-style iced coffee topped with cold foamy milk) flavoured with ondeh ondeh ingredients like gula melaka, pandan and coconut (klepon is the Indonesian equivalent of our ondeh ondeh). Pretty fragrant and fun to sip on.

Consider this a caffeinated version of brown sugar pearl milk, sans pearls lah. It’s a decadently thick, creamy, caramel-perfumed concoction that’s not as sweet as bubble tea. You can also order it hot or as a frappé.

Other than coffee, the cafe also serves a refreshing cold brew Hibiscus Lemonade Tea in a chio, takeaway-friendly glass bottle. There are coffee cold brews like Caffe Latte and Cold Brew Black ($4.80 each) too, but we think the coffee here is best enjoyed as freshly brewed cuppas.

Maxx Coffee offers Signature Cruffins (that’s a croissant-muffin hybrid for you) in four flavours: Bandung, Srikaya, Pandan Gula Melaka and Oreo. We find the bandung flavour most interesting, with rose syrup-flavoured cream piped into the flaky, airy croissant.

But taste-wise, we prefer the Srikaya, with a fragrant house-made Indonesian-style kaya infused with caramelised sugar.

There are also so-so savoury bites like Carbonara and Lasagna Pies ($7.60 each), made at a central kitchen and transported to the caffe. We say go for the more unique drinks and cruffins here. For a limited period, Maxx Coffee is offering a 1-for-1 opening promotion on all takeaway drinks at its Jem outlet.

#01-34/35 Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Rd, S608549. Open daily 8am-11pm. www.maxx-coffee.sg.

PHOTOS: YIP JIEYING