Green tea almond croissant ($5.20++) & TBB teh tarik ($6.60++)!
Monday Tiong Bahru Bakery — green tea almond croissant $5.20 + TBB teh tarik $6.60. Cafe signature pastry + local-twist tea drink.
Monday morning cafe — green tea almond croissant $5.20++ + TBB teh tarik $6.60++ at Tiong Bahru Bakery. Cafe signature pastry + local-twist tea drink.
We ordered:
- Green tea almond croissant — $5.20++
- TBB teh tarik — $6.60++
Total: $11.80++ (plus service + GST = ~$14 nett).
The “TBB” in the drink name + the ++ pricing confirms this was Tiong Bahru Bakery (TBB), one of Singapore’s iconic French bakery-cafe chains. TBB operates multiple Singapore outlets — Tiong Bahru flagship, Raffles City, Ion Orchard, Tanglin Mall, Jewel Changi, etc. — running the proper French boulangerie format with the modern cafe service.
The green tea almond croissant is the TBB signature pastry variant. Standard almond croissant preparation:
- Croissant dough (laminated French butter pastry)
- Almond cream filling (frangipane — almond flour + butter + sugar + eggs)
- Almond slivers on top
- Powdered sugar dusting after baking
- Sometimes a small amount of rum or extract in the cream
The green tea variant adds matcha powder to the almond cream filling. The matcha provides:
- The signature umami-vegetal-grassy flavour
- Visible green colour against the cream-coloured pastry
- Slight bitter edge balancing the almond sweetness
The croissant base itself runs the proper French laminated pastry — the visible flaky layers from the proper butter folding, the buttery-rich aroma, the crispy exterior + tender-pillowy interior. TBB’s French bakery heritage (founded by French baker Gontran Cherrier) ensures the proper authentic execution.
The TBB teh tarik is the cafe’s signature drink variant. Teh tarik is the iconic Malay-Indian “pulled tea” — strong black tea + condensed milk pulled between two cups to create the proper frothy texture. The TBB rendition modernises the format with the proper cafe-grade tea + balanced sweetness + the proper presentation.
The traditional teh tarik runs aggressive in sweetness; the TBB version dials back the sugar slightly while maintaining the proper milk-tea + condensed-milk character. The pulling technique creates the signature foam crown on top.
At $6.60 for the TBB teh tarik, this is premium pricing for what’s typically a $1.20-1.80 mamak stall drink. The premium positioning reflects the cafe execution + the premium tea sourcing + the cafe ambiance.
Tiong Bahru Bakery is one of Singapore’s defining specialty cafe-bakery operations. The pricing tier sits in the upper-mid cafe range — different from the budget cafe ($3-5 pastries) or the destination patisserie ($8-15 specialty items), TBB occupies the proper everyday-accessible-premium tier.
The Monday morning cafe stop is the proper week-kickoff format. Different from the destination weekend cafe visit or the convenience-stop weekday coffee, the Monday morning TBB visit is the deliberate pleasant-start-to-the-week format.
Overall: 4.7 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Excellent TBB green tea almond croissant + teh tarik. Would re-visit.
