Matcha Latte With Espresso, A Japanese Riff On Hong Kong’s Yuan Yang

What started as an online store offering Japanese homeware morphed into a coffee bean and apparatus specialist with a physical store and café in Kyoto last year. It’s set up by Kyoto native Yozo Otsuki, a former banker who’s now based in Singapore. The local branch here opened in July.

The decor here is minimalist chic, almost Spartan. The focal point is a blonde wood counter that seats five, with several armchairs scattered around. Two edgy millennials that fit the stereotype of a hipster barista prepare the drinks: a willowy, tattooed, stand-offish lass, and an equally inked but friendlier guy. They, along with their chic Japanese coffee brewing apparatus (some of which are for sale here), add character to the otherwise generic café within the office’s lobby that looks more like it belongs in a funky boutique hotel.

Pour-over coffee, also known as hand-dripped coffee, is a simple but laborious brewing method favoured by coffee snobs. Hot water from a fancy thin-spouted kettle is slowly poured over ground coffee in a filter placed over a holder called the ‘pour-over dripper’ to brew a single cuppa. The equipment used, speed in which the water is poured, amount of liquid, and how roughly or finely the beans are ground all affect the drink’s final flavour, which is meant to be clean yet full of depth. All the coffee beans used at Kurasu are from various Japanese roasters.

Don’t expect any food here, aside from this dense and slightly greasy Banana Loaf that is not baked in-house. Skip.

This features single-origin Colombian beans from Saredo Coffee roasters in Fukuoka. It’s lovingly brewed using designer Japanese equipment like a Kinto Pour-over kettle. The tasting notes for this say “honey, milk chocolate, nuts and caramel”. Call us pour-over coffee plebs, but all we taste is a rather acidic­ — albeit silky and light­ — black brew. Well, it does smell a teensy bit nutty if we inhale its aroma vigorously enough.

While this colourful cuppa of warm milk and green tea powder from Kyoto boasts agreeably toasty and earthy notes, the blend already comes premixed with sugar, which distracts from the flavour of the tea.

The matcha fares better in this photogenic, off-menu item (just ask the barista for it). Its sweetness is tamed with a little more milk, ice and a shot of coffee. The result is a posh Japanese version of a HK Yuan Yang, that cha chaan teng staple of tea mixed with coffee. Here, the layers of green, white and brown swirl beautifully as your stir the drink, producing a moreish, balanced blend of bitter, sweet, creamy, grassy and fruity.

Made with a house blend of Colombian, Brazilian and Ethiopian beans from coffee roaster Single O Japan in Tokyo. The beans are 100 per cent Arabica, which purists prefer (in ‘lesser’ cups, some lower quality Robusta beans are added to give the coffee darker, more chocolatey flavours) for its brighter notes, However, this means the cappuccino is slightly lightweight and acidic beneath the milk and a cap of simple but skilfully executed latte art. Not bad if you enjoy your coffees milder.

The coffee here is pleasant if you’re a fan of lighter, fruitier Japanese-style hand-dripped brews — not so much if you’re an espresso kinda person. Also, the otherwise Zen space can get a bit uncomfortably crowded with skiving cubicle rats on weekday afternoons.



#02-01, 331 North Bridge Rd, Odeon Towers, S188720. Open daily except Sun. Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; Sat 11am-3pm. Last orders 15 mins before closing. www.facebook.com/kurasusg