Bacha Coffee: Reinventing Traditional Arabica Coffee Experiences With Over 200 Coffee Choices At ION Orchard

First established in Marrakech in 1910, Bacha Coffee is a luxury brand that is known for its hand-roasted beans, bespoke grinds and elegant service.

Bacha Coffee recently launched its first coffee room and boutique in October 2019 outside of Marrakech in the heart of Singapore’s premium shopping district at ION Orchard.

Bacha Coffee’s 30-seat coffee room at ION takes inspiration from the architecture and interiors of the Dar el Bacha Palace.

It transposes the hallmarks of historic Marrakech to a contemporary destination. Gleaming ultra-modern chrome displays are beautifully blended with geometric patterned latticework, black-and-white marble floors, and brass chandeliers. 

With this boutique coffee room, Bacha Coffee offers exclusive 100% Arabica coffees from farmers in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central and South America, the Carribean, Asia and beyond.

The menu features an extensive list of over 200 types of coffees, ranging from single-origin, fine-flavoured and decaffeinated coffees. 

Since the range was so wide, we had a relatively hard time choosing which coffee to enjoy. Eventually, we settled on three of the cafe’s favourites coffees and a few of their classic sweet treats. 

A little secret to the amazing coffees that Bacha Coffee serves up is the consistent temperature. Bacha Coffee’s gooseneck coffee pots are double-walled which helps the coffee stay hot for a longer period of time! 

The first coffee we had was an Ethiopian single-origin coffee, known as the Sidamo Mountain Coffee (S$9 per pot). Sidamo coffees are grown in the Province of Sidamo in the Ethiopian highlands at elevations from 1,500 up to 2,200 metres above sea level.

The washed Ethiopian coffee was rich and rather heavy. Fragrant and full-bodied, this coffee was slightly bitter. It was also quite low on acidity when judged on the coffee taster’s flavour wheel.

The coffee taster’s flavour wheel is a simple tool to describe the coffee flavour, developed by SCAA in collaboration with the World Coffee Research in 2016.

The staff at Bacha Coffee recommended trying the coffees in different styles. One style would be to add the ground vanilla beans, the other would be to add warm milk or if not you could simply add chantilly cream.

The ground vanilla beans brought out the fragrance of the coffee with sweet notes of vanilla whereas when adding warm milk, the coffee becomes a creamy smooth consistency. With the chantilly cream, the coffee becomes sweeter and creamier all together. 

Customers can also enjoy the coffee with all the additional ingredients added to their coffee and savour it in a different way. 

For the second coffee, we chose to try out one of their fine flavoured coffees, the 1910 Coffee (S$9 per pot).

When sipping on the coffee, the aromas of fresh strawberries instantly wafted to me. The taste of strawberries was more prominent at the end of the sip and seems like the perfect brew for a balmy summer holiday.

After all the hot coffees that we tasted, we decided to also try out their cold coffee. From their fine flavoured coffee section, we chose the Caramelo Morning Coffee (S$9/glass) in the cold latte form.

For many, this would probably be their go-to coffee choice because of its lighter and sweeter taste compared to pour-over coffees. Customers can also enjoy the latte with sugar syrup if the sweetness is not adequate. Bacha Coffee roasts these Arabica beans gently to define and enhance their natural malty notes of sweet caramel. 

To accompany the coffees, we also had Bacha Coffee’s Gourmet Sweet Croissants.

Instead of struggling to choose which to get, we decided to try all of the flavours—1910 Coffee & Chocolate Croissant (S$8), Raspberry & Cinnamon Croissant (S$8), Orange Almond Croissant (S$8) and Pistachio Croissant (S$8).

The croissants had a buttery texture and fluffy consistency and they were the perfect pairing for the coffees that we had.

My favourite was definitely the Raspberry & Cinnamon Croissant as I’ve always been a fan of the sour and sweet flavour combination. The croissant had a thin coating of sugar on top that contributed to the sweetness and the raspberry filling was tart and slightly sweet. 

The Superior Rwanda Coffee Tiramisu (S$12) is a decadent soft tiramisu, with a rather potent jolt of coffee. This dessert has a soft sponge with a coffee jelly layer underneath. Bacha Coffee also adds three mini cubes of soft coffee jelly that taste wonderful when paired with the tiramisu. 

The other sweet treat that we had was the Traditional Kouglof (S$8) made with raisins and almonds. Kouglof is Alsatian brioche, made from the yeast-based dough with adding of raisins, almonds and sometimes hazelnuts.

The kouglof was soft and fluffy with bits of raisins and almonds embedded in the bread. Because the kouglof doesn’t have much sweetness to it, it is accompanied by coffee flower honey and chantilly whipped cream, to enhance the taste of the pastry.

The coffee flower honey is made from the nectar of the Arabica coffee plants—this is also where the coffee beans at Bacha Coffee are sourced from. 

If you’re looking for a more Singaporean dessert, Bacha Coffee also offers Pandan Cheesecake (S$9). The pandan flavour was quite strong and complemented the cheese flavour.

However, the cheesecake was slightly too dense for me and had a rather firm texture that I wasn’t really a fan of. Other than that, the dish is the perfect accompaniment to the coffee! 

The luxurious architecture of the coffee room really made me feel like I had been transported to Dar El Bacha Palace. I thoroughly enjoyed sipping on different coffee creations and it was definitely a coffee experience like no other.

If you’re a coffee-lover, Bacha Coffee would probably be heaven on Earth for you.

Expected Damage: S$20 – S$40 per pax