Beyond Coffee, VivoCity: “The Tomato Tango Coffee is the kind of strange I need in my life”

Alcohol, caffeine, sugar—what’s your vice? Whichever one or combination it is, Beyond Coffee has you covered. The newest player in the coffee scene, your taste buds won’t know what to think after dropping by this cafe.

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Opened by co-founders Jeremy and Bill, Beyond Coffee is setting itself apart with the most imaginative flavour combinations that will change the way you look at coffee. Think tomato, rosemary, cheese, and seaweed. Before coming here, coffee to me was just a sleep-deprived worker’s fuel. Now, it is more of an art form than ever. 

Don’t simply write them off as weird. These flavours actually work, because the flavour combinations have been carefully curated to harmony. You’ll find that each drink tickles every inch of the palate as you detect individual notes of sweet, savoury, bitter and sour. 

With anticipation, I took my first few tentative sips.

What I tried

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I began my initiation into the world of craft coffee and teas with the Crafted Series. With tea-bases brewed with oolong and jasmine tea leaves from Taiwan, the drinks here are lighter and more refreshing than the rest of the menu. This range of drinks features three options with velvety house-made cheese foam, and two without. For the doubtfuls, try the Fruity Paradise (S$7.90) for a refreshing start.

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The Fruity Paradise features an invigorating blend of watermelon, orange, passionfruit, lemon and lime shaken with light oolong tea. Sweet but still clean tasting, I could immediately feel the care taken into curating the best ratio of the freshest ingredients possible. 

Following that, I sampled the Krabi Surprise (S$7.90), which was indeed, well, surprising. Knowing that there was lemongrass involved in here, I had my guard up against what I anticipated might be a rude sensory shock. However, the herby lemongrass turned out to be pretty mild and provided a nice kick to the citrusy mix of lemon, orange and jasmine tea.

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Feeling more adventurous after two successful teas, I turned to the Momotaro (S$7.90). With a jasmine tea base, this concoction infuses pieces of chopped peach and strawberry and is generously topped with a thick layer of cheese foam. I liked that the fruit added a fresh bite to the otherwise creamy drink. 

I was a little overwhelmed by the cheese foam here though, finding it a little jarring against the other milder components. That said—and I hope this info doesn’t cost my cred as a food writer—this was my first time trying cheese foam. Maybe the virgin onslaught of creamy umami-ness in a drink was too much to take.

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It’s no trip to Beyond Coffee without a dip into their Tomato Tango (S$7.50) from the Signature Series. This adventurous concoction of cherry tomato, seaweed and coffee will definitely dance the tango with your tongue.

I’d consider this drink to be the hallmark of Beyond Coffee’s concept. Using mixology methods like shaking, muddling and straining, the concoctions are developed and prepared just like how cocktails are done, except with coffee instead of alcohol. 

With a blend of 60% Uganda and 40% Colombia coffee beans, the Tomato Tango is a harmony of roasty espresso and muddled sweet cherry tomatoes. Mint and seaweed tops the whole beverage off. 

You might feel a little outraged at the strange ingredient combination, but I urge you to put reservations aside and give it a try. It has a pleasant balance of bitterness that poetically mingles the savoury with twangy twists. It is the kind of strange I need in my life.

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On to the Addiction Series, where I made my second foray into a salted egg yolk creation this week. With an adorable name, the Crack Me Up (S$7.50) was most memorable for the popping boba and bits of salted egg yolk biscuits scattered over the surface. 

With rich textural contrasts from the bursting pearls and crunchy biscuits, this felt more like a dessert. The vanilla aftertaste was welcome, without being overly umami. I would’ve liked more and larger biscuit chunks to crunch on, though.

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And now for the showstopper; also from the Addiction Series, the Melaka Rhapsody (S$5.90) was my favourite of them all. It’s quite aptly named, because you’ll hear me wax poetic about it for a bit. 

For this, you can choose between a coffee or tea base. I opted for the former, and it came to me with beautiful swirls of coffee, gula melaka boba, coffee jelly, and yes, cheese foam. I liked the cheese foam way better here, because its savouriness was toned down by the saccharine gula.

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The creamy and sweet combination along with a hint of bitterness made it so enjoyable. To complete that, the chewy pearls and slightly crunchy jelly provided such a palatable textural contrast that I couldn’t stop sipping. 

I’ll love to try new flavours the next time I go back, but I know that it’s going to take a fair bit of self-control not to order this again. 

Final thoughts

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You might expect me to only recommend Beyond Coffee to the adventurous, but that’s not the case. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes to enjoy a good drink. With every drink at Beyond Coffee, there is a conscious effort to concoct a blend of flavours that harmonise with each other. Come with an open mind, you just might like it. 

Beyond Coffee’s care behind their craft left a deep impression on me. Now that I’ve tried them, there is some truth to ‘life begins after coffee’, as my experience there has shown me how keeping an open mind can have such delicious results. 

Expected Damage: S$4 – S$7.90 per drink

Price: $

Our Rating: 4 / 5

Beyond Coffee

1 HarbourFront Walk, VivoCity Shopping Mall, #02-135/136, Singapore 098585

Price
Our Rating 4/5

Beyond Coffee

1 HarbourFront Walk, VivoCity Shopping Mall, #02-135/136, Singapore 098585

Operating Hours: 11am - 10pm (Daily)

Operating Hours: 11am - 10pm (Daily)
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