Time really flies. This month, we celebrate the 3rd year anniversary of Essential Brew. Its really amazing that Essential Brew has already been open for a good three years as it seems just like yesterday when we opened our doors to our first customers.

I still remember how exciting it was when I first stepped into the vacant unit at Holland V more than 3 years ago, and after that the run up in preparation for our first day of business was a whirlwind two months of endless meetings with contractors, renovations, employing staff, applying for licenses, buying furniture, finalizing our menu, sourcing for various suppliers etc. It was with a great sense of accomplishment when we finally started operations in July 2004, but things were still quite uncertain then as we were still unsure whether you, our all important customers would take to our concept of tea-infused food and cuisine in a relaxed, cozy setting. But from then on, how much we have grown!

Of course, over the years, we’ve never stopped evolving to take on new ideas to improve, based on feedback from well-meaning friends, family and customers as well as our own sporadic sparks of creativity. And going forward, we will never stop improving, in order to provide a more memorable and enjoyable experience for our customers as well as to share our love for tea.

Here’s an old feature we had on television a few months after we first started featuring Jamie Teo and celebrity guest JJ Lin for that touch of nostalgia. Do enjoy!

And lastly, thanks for giving us your loyal support all this time from all our regulars. Do watch out for our 3rd anniversary promotions that will be rolled out soon to thank all of you! =)

Why did we choose to start our first outlet at Holland Village of all places? This is a question that we have been posed countless times, so I guess this will be a good subject for this post for all those people who are still wondering.

First of all, we have to go back in time when the concept of EB was still on the drawing board. When we first came up with the idea of a tea-themed cafe, the basic idea revolved around bite-sized finger food that can complement and go well with the finest selection of teas we can find. We wanted our own little haven where unlike any other conventional restaurants, customers will be able to kick off their shoes, drink and dine relaxed in a cozy setting. Having been to many tea houses during our tea appreciation days, we were also inspired by the traditional tea house setting, where we get to brew and enjoy tea on low height tables. Thus, the concept of a cozy and comfortable modern tea house was finalized but we needed to find a suitable place to bring our idea to fruition. After countless visits to various locations including various orchard road areas, serangoon gardens etc, we chanced upon the holland v unit and fell in love with it.

The rest, as you can see, is history.

Holland village itself has its own charm and appealed greatly to us as well. It is a self-contained village where you can basically do anything, from buying groceries , meeting friends, shopping in the many unique shops located at Holland village shopping centre and of course to settle down for a good meal at the many cafes and restaurants here. The “bohemian enclave” of Singapore, it is a good balance of old and new and a perfect fit for our idea of a modern version of a traditional chinese tea house.

Its laid back feel attracts throngs of people to congregate here to meet up for meals or drinks thus we felt that there is no better place to introduce our tea-infused food and drinks to masses.

That sums up how we got about being in Holland V. Do drop by if you are at Holland V and check out the place!

Yeah… I still remember the almost weekly recipe testing session we had. We were trying out almost any tea recipe we could get our hands on as well as inventing some of our very own to experiment with. Eventually some of these recipes found their way into our menu, some didn’t, but well we had a whole lot of fun messing up the kitchen while conceptualising and finetuning the idea for the restaurant at the same time. And of course at the end of each session, what better way to end than to have our special brew of premium chinese tea to round up the day! There’s lots more that we went through just to get to the menu that we present to customers now but definitely, we kept most of the old drinks (they remain favourites till now!) and we’re still constantly experimenting and recreating new drinks. (like lingerin’ angel and summer peach - both added not long ago, but are now among the favourites!)

And of course not forgetting the food! Most people have the idea that tea is only meant for drinking but why not try cooking with tea? That is how we came out with the brainwave of tea-infused cuisine. Since we already love drinking tea, why not put it into food as well? We started with the idea of bite-sized easy to eat kind of fingerfood and appetizers(those you can pick up easily with a pair of chopsticks) to go with our tea. But as you can see, its now expanded to include a whole range of main courses as well. The process was not smooth sailing definitely, and many a times we had to meet up with our kitchen pros! Dish by dish, each was slowly perfected then implemented! One of my personal favourites is still the grilled tofu steak with its fragrant aroma of jasmine tea! (for those who’ve had this before, i’m sure you’re nodding your head in agreement right now:D)

Do you have your own favourite tea recipe to share? or a favourite drink or dish to proclaim:)? Do drop us a tag!

Something we’re all extremely accustomed to when meeting someone for the first time, is to shake, greet and introduce ourselves - but of course you knew that! However, there’s more… it’s never complete and a conversation can never start until someone asks: “So, whadya do?”

Seems like it’s such an instinctive part of us to need to know the famous Ws; who’s the new face we just met? which school did he study in? where’s she working at now? what music do you like? So as it is, EB has been around for about 2 and a 1/2 years till today and much as we’ve made our lil’l handshakes with many out there, it seems our humble little story of how we came about has faded down memory lane…

It all conceived with a little spark that got things brewing in our minds. A good buddy of mine and I were exchanging ideas one day in early 2003 and the topic landed on tea, a drink we both enjoyed. At that point, what crossed our minds was not just the health benefits and history of this drink but also an opportunity to introduce it to others in a way never or hardly done so before.

We knew introducing tea solely in it’s traditional form wouldn’t garner much following since the idea only conjures images of an older generation brewing the drink with old tea pots or Victorian ladies sipping afternoon tea. Hence, we came up with an idea to build a lifestyle lounge concept around it.

This was when my 4 partners and I came together and brainstormed on how to make our idea into reality. We all used to be classmates from the same alma mater where entrepreneurship was an idea preached about and advocated even during the school assemblies. Probably seems that’s why we all gravitated towards the same direction.

…after a year plus of planning, recipe testing and messing around my home kitchen every weekend in between work or studies, we finally conceptualized the idea into a soon-to-be-reality, Essential Brew! (Actually, that wasn’t our original name but I’ll save that for another day) =)

We then set out to achieve a few simple goals: To introduce the wonders of Tea, sharing the knowledge and enjoyment of it, by offering an easy approach to appreciate the drink through our modern blends and cozy concept. To offer only good quality products, and delighting our patrons through warm and friendly service.

Essential Brew opened its doors on 6th July 2004, without any fanfare or ribbon cutting ceremonies, but just by warmly welcoming our very first customers who happened to chance by our place along with loved ones and friends who came to support.