Specialty Brews & Homebaked Goodies at Henry Congressional
Henry Congressional, a pop-up cafe of sorts, opened its doors with a soft launch on 13 June 2012. The cafe will only be open for 8 months because the building in which they are located has been sold via a collective sale (more commonly referred to as "en bloc" in Singapore).
Henry Congressional seeks to promote the appreciation of specialty brews - of the caffeinated, non-caffeinated and alcoholic variety.
The menu features a good variety of specialty coffee and tea by Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar in addition to a wide range of craft beers.
A small selection of sandwiches and homebaked goodies is available for those who are hungry. All cakes and cookies at Henry Congressional are baked by one of the partners, Goh P, who used to be a pilot before deciding to pursue his passion in F&B.
A Speedster named "Henry"
My Barista friends, C and M, seemed thrilled by the uber-cool, retro-style Espresso machine. I later realised that the Speedster is a fairly exclusive machine that is regarded by some Baristas to be the best espresso machine in the world.
Check out the Speedster's name, Henry, which is spelt out using really cool retro-style buttons.
Latte @ S$5
served with a homebaked cookie
The Latte here was made with Smitten's updated in-house Thumper Espresso blend and was a fairly robust but well-balanced cup. It was served with a homebaked dark chocolate cookie, Dark Cloud. The soft and slightly chewy cookie had the rich flavour of dark chocolate and wasn't excessively sweet.
Pandan Chiffon Cake @ S$ 4
half a slice of Pandan Chiffon Cake on the right
I am quite apprehensive about eating Pandan Chiffon Cakes as most of the commercially available ones are too sweet, too dry and have a radioactive green shade that can rival the Incredible Hulk's skin tone. The first thing I noted about the Pandan Chiffon Cake was it's pale colour. No colouring, how rare! I had to try the Pandan Chiffon Cake even though I was feeling very full from a substantial lunch.
Goh P was very kind to serve me half a slice of cake and pack the remaining half to takeaway. It's the BEST Pandan Chiffon Cake I've had in close to a decade! It was airily light with a soft but slightly chewy texture. It seemed to melt on the tongue, almost like a fragrant pandan-flavoured candy floss (aka fairy floss). It wasn't too sweet and the beautifully browned crust added a nice slightly smoky touch to the cake. This is made the way I remembered Pandan Chiffon Cake to be as a child and is absolutely a MUST-TRY!
If beer's your thing, they sell a wide range of Belgium beers, including all the Trappistes, and Jungle Beer. I sampled some Tropical Wheat Jungle Beer that had been brewed with Mango and Orange. It was very pleasant to drink as it was sweet, wasn't bitter like most beers and had a slightly fruity flavour.
