Monday, May 25, 2009

Cookie Museum

Popular in South East Asia, this place has a wide variety of cookies flavours, in fact over 200 cookie varieties, all handmade in their humble shop at Esplanade...

Cookie Museum @ Esplanade I

Formerly known as V tea room, the ambience of this place is worth mentioning. As described by 8 days (No. 967, April 30, 2009), this Quaint English decor with plush chair is a chic chic place for meeting up for good old friends. However, there is limited seating area given that half the shop front is filled with their retail products so for large groups, particularly during peak hour, don't forget to make a reservation.

Cookie Museum @ Esplanade II

While waiting for your orders, the staff will allow some cookies tasting session. As the cookies are made without eggs, the cookies are of a softer base, something similar to a Sugee Cookie with a buttery and crumbly texture.

The floral base that leave a stronger impression would be the Madeline Rose which is definitely a good gift for females. The rose fragrance is sufficient to linger in the palette, providing a calming after-taste.

Berry lovers will be impressed by the Berry Lite (made of organic blueberries and macadamia nuts) for the chunks of chewy blueberries incorporated in the light cookie dough.

For flavours inspired by local dishes such as Nasi Lemak, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Hae Bee Hiam, they are generally crunchy and tasted more like crackers. For instance, the initial taste of Nasi Lemak does resemble the Cashew Nuts Cookies, which is led by a slight spicy after-taste. Hainanese Chicken Rice is strong on its garlic, thereby similar to crunchy garlic bread and has a similar spiciness after-taste as the Nasi Lemak Cookie.

The cookies are sold in tins, packed with 500gm worth of cookies and costs $38 to $45 (depending on the flavour). Being handmade, pre-orders may be required for certain popular flavours.

Handmade cookies

Apart from the cookies, Cookie Museum has a list of tea infusions. Comparing with TWG Tea Salon, the main difference between the two is that the former has a huge library of "solo" tea and in-house blends while Cookie Museum, with a shorter list, focus more on tea infusions, where each tea is a combination of two or more ingredients. The floral tea which I had was a bed of roses ($12++) and I like the whiff of rose fragrance but not its blend taste.

Charming floral tea

Yuan settled with the Baileys Cap ($15++), which he felt that the liquer was barely detectable and prefers a similar version he had at The Lounge (InterContinental Singapore). In terms of the aroma of the coffee, he thought it was pretty ordinary.

Iced Coffee Blend
Front: Chai latte, Back: Baileys Cap

Apart from the cookie sampling session, we were given 3 pieces of complementary cookies and these Raisins with white chocolate cookies, like the previous are soft in its cookie base. I thought soft cookie base tends to complement better with floral or fruity flavours rather than chocolates so my preference will be the Madeline Rose and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Nevertheless, these cookies aren't very sweet and are acceptable in my opinion.

Raisins with white chocolate cookies

At the entrance of the shop, freshly baked cakes are displayed and we have decided on a neutral flavour, the Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur Teacake. Was indeed impressed by its presentation and this cake has a texture of a freshly baked butter cake, is soaked in coffee and topped with cream. Accompanied with it was a mini jugful of Baileys. The uniqueness of this cake lies in it being soaked in coffee giving a sweet creamy aroma but having soaked in such a strong base, the fragrance of the cake is completely being overwhelmed by the coffee.

But amazingly, despite being soaked in the coffee, the texture is not soggy at all but moist and dense. At whopping price of $19++, it is a little steep to justify what this dessert has to offer. Other flavours available for this version of cake includes Oak Whisky Liqueur, Kahlua Espresso Liqueur and Three Queens Liqueur.

Signature Liquer Tea Cake

The premium cake melt was highly recommended and this creation is baked with fresh fruits, cuts of Philadelphia cream cheese and Hawaiian macadamia nuts. The creamy durian ($22++) we had consists of powdery curd-like durian pudding with a pieces of kueh-like cake. Other flavours available for this version of dessert includes Liqueur Wild Blueberry, Choco Cheese and Honey Mango.

A close-up of the Prenium Cake Melt
For the full serving of this dish, click here

All in all, it is an interesting concept of tea drinking and cookie tasting in a lovely Victorian decor. However, the price tag that comes with it was shocking though the desserts are extraordinary.

Cookie Museum (former V Tea Room)
8 Raffles Avenue
#01-02/04 Esplanade Mall
Singapore 039802
Tel: 6333 1965

Operating Hours -
12:30pm to 10:30pm (Sun-Thu)
1pm to 11:30pm (Fri and Sat)
http://www.thecookiemuseum.com/

3 comments:

cookiedough said...

i am surprised you took photos of the place and food so openly. we were stopped once while taking fotos, even KF Seetoh can't, how come you can?

Elaine Ng. said...

i absolutely love the victorian feel of this place (: only been here once a few years back ( when they are still known as the V Tea Room) and craving to go back but everything is so expensive!

Fen said...

I kinda expect tis place to be pricey judging from the decor of the place but didn't know it was more expensive than TWG...

Though the decor is nice, Yuan didn't like the fragrance that was lingering in the place...

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