Sweet spots: 5 new Chinese dessert cafes and what to order

SINGAPORE – Viral Chinese brands such as Yimanfen Dessert and BlackTree have landed in Singapore, along with a string of dessert cafes opened here by Chinese entrepreneurs.

Home-grown Chinese dessert brand Chan Susu 1994 opened at Orchard Gateway on Jan 1, followed by ceramics cafe Mozmoji in Chinatown in April and cottagecore-themed Joy Cake in Holland Village in July.

The same month, Hangzhou’s viral Yimanfen Dessert, which grew to more than 90 outlets across China in two years, opened its first overseas outlet at 313@somerset, followed by BlackTree’s first overseas outpost at the same mall on Aug 7.

Zhao Shu Yong, in his 50s, the Singapore business partner for both brands who facilitated their entry here, was drawn to their strong concepts and products, as well as the creativity of their founders.

Zhao, who is a Chinese national, is the owner of 5:59+ Cafe & Bistro, a Western dining concept from Chengdu which opened at 313@somerset in September 2025. 

He believes Singapore’s diverse dining market and openness to new Asian flavours make it attractive to Chinese brands looking overseas.

On how long the Chinese dessert trend here will last, he says: “I do not think it will truly fade. Instead, it will gradually become an established category in Singapore’s dining scene.”

But he adds that consumers will become more focused on the quality of the product, rather than simply chasing new brands. 

Joy Cake owner Nikita Ma, 30, who has a chain of three cafes in Hebei, China, observes that while China has a huge population, the country’s vast geographical size means consumer spending is dispersed over a much larger area.

In compact Singapore, despite its much smaller population, spending is more concentrated, which she views as an advantage.

Ma expects more Chinese dessert brands to enter Singapore as operators look for opportunities outside China. She reckons the trend here will last another three to five years.

Here are five places to check out and what to order at each.

Yimanfen: Viral desserts from Hangzhou

Where: 02-50 & 02-K4 313@somerset, 313 Orchard Road
Open: 10am to 9.30pm daily
Info: @yimanfen_sg_official on Instagram

Founded in Hangzhou in 2024, viral Chinese dessert brand Yimanfen has expanded to more than 90 outlets across China, including in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan and Chongqing.

In Singapore, it appeals to local diners with generously loaded dessert bowls and ingredients with contrasting textures.

Founder Eleven Xu, 33, who has more than 10 years’ experience in the tea beverage industry, started Yimanfen after seeing beverage brands increasingly compete on marketing and price. She saw an opportunity in the modern Chinese desserts market and wanted to focus on quality ingredients and how they are prepared.

The 32-seat outlet has an open kitchen with ingredients on display.

Xu is particular about where they come from. Peach gum is sourced from Suizhou, a city in the Hubei province, while white lotus seeds come from Jianning in Fujian province.

The brand does not use pre-made syrups or artificial additives, and its syrups, sweet soups and tea bases are prepared in-store daily.

Singapore business partner Zhao Shu Yong says the brand has made some adjustments for the local market.

In China, the desserts are generally served at room temperature. In Singapore, the milk used in regular desserts is chilled before serving as customers here prefer colder desserts in the tropical heat. For ice-blended desserts, the milk is frozen before blending.

The signature Manfen Grand Bowl ($8.20) is a textural delight of grass jelly, snow fungus, peach gum, white lotus seeds, red beans, handcrafted sweet potato taro balls and Shaanxi-style black glutinous rice. The ingredients are served at room temperature with chilled fresh milk. Sweetness is minimal.

Manfen Chewy Shushu Bowl ($7.80) combines sweet potato taro balls, snow fungus, peach gum and tapioca with the signature Jumbo Taro-Filled Sweet Potato Ball. Handcrafted in China and sent here frozen, the oversized ball has a chewy sweet potato exterior filled with soft taro paste.

Xu’s experience in tea shows in the thirst-quenching Loquat Iced Tea ($6.90). The loquat – sourced from Tangqi, known as the loquat town of China – comes in a chilled, clean-tasting blend of roasted green tea and jasmine tea. 

BlackTree Asian Tea Lab: Thai milk tea from China 

Where: 01-26 313@somerset, 313 Orchard Road
Open: 10am to 10pm daily
Info: @blacktree_sg_official on Instagram

For all the attention lavished on BlackTree Asian Tea Lab’s photogenic drinks, including Matcha Wang’s Lily Lamb ($7.90) and Milky Cat Cheese Thai Milk Tea ($6.90), the real highlight is its Singapore-exclusive Ambarella Sorbet (from $6.90).

Launched in August, the deliciously tangy-sweet sorbet made with ambarella, also known as buah long long, costs $6.90 a cup, $7.90 for a single-scoop cone and $8.90 for a double-scoop cone. 

BlackTree was started in 2025 by Miller Xie, who is in his 30s and has 10 years’ experience in F&B. Its first outlet opened in Shenzhen and the brand now has about 20 stores across China, including in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chongqing.

Thai tea was chosen because of its strong global recognition and how it is more readily accepted by consumers in South-east Asia, says Xie, who intends to continue developing more tea beverages with distinctive Asian characteristics for the market.

The 30-seat Singapore outlet is the brand’s first Asian Tea Lab, where different teas, ingredients and preparation techniques can be tried out. Xie hopes to use Singapore as a test bed to understand how the brand should continue evolving for international consumers.

He says: “Singapore consumers are extremely well exposed to tea and beverage brands, so they tend to be discerning. We find that they pay attention not only to novelty, but also to the actual quality and balance of the drink.”

He notes that refreshing flavours such as ambarella are naturally appealing, given Singapore’s climate. 

Matcha Wang’s Lily Lamb is a collaboration with Shanghai speciality matcha brand Matcha Wang and is limited to 200 cups a day, with a separate queue for the drink alone.

Jasmine milk tea is capped with matcha foam, on which staff draw each lamb by hand. It takes about two months of training for employees to master the illustration, which takes just a few dozen seconds to complete. The jasmine tea’s floral notes come through beneath the matcha foam.

A three-dimensional cat head hand-shaped from cheese foam sits atop the Milky Cat Cheese Thai Milk Tea. The savoury, salty foam contrasts with the sweet Thai milk tea, while coconut jelly and water chestnut popping boba add texture.

Its sweetness level is fixed and cannot be adjusted, but Xie says the amount of sugar was reduced slightly after customer feedback during the soft opening.

Chan Susu 1994: Singapore dessert brand expands to China

Where: 01-10 Orchard Gateway, 277 Orchard Road
Open: 10.30am to 11.30pm daily
Tel: 9238-0368
Info: @chansusu1994sg on Instagram

While established Chinese dessert brands are entering Singapore, home-grown Chan Susu 1994 broke into the Chinese market a month after opening its flagship outlet at Orchard Gateway on Jan 1.

In February, it opened its second outlet in Guangzhou and, at the start of September, its third outlet in Chengdu.

Co-owner Kimi Zhou, 37, plans to open another one or two outlets in Singapore in 2026, and intends to have no more than five here over the next two years. He is also considering expansion into Indonesia and Malaysia.

Zhou, who hails from Shanghai, came to Singapore in 2011 to study at the East Asia Institute of Management, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management from Scotland’s Queen Margaret University in 2014. It was followed by a Master of Arts in International Tourism and Leadership in 2015 from the university.

After graduating, Zhou, whose parents are entrepreneurs in the IT industry, went into F&B. He started a bubble tea business in 2016, which now has 15 outlets, and has also opened Chinese restaurants in Jurong, Tanjong Pagar and Chinatown.

He became a Singapore permanent resident in January 2022.

Chan Susu 1994’s concept is traditional Chinese desserts with a contemporary spin. The 40-seat, 700 sq ft outlet has 56 items, including desserts, snacks and savoury dishes.

Its best-selling Handmade Lava Taro Balls Grand Bowl ($8.90) took a month to develop. Two large lava taro balls, made fresh daily, come with grass jelly, peach gum, small taro balls, red beans and steamed black glutinous rice. Bite into one and the chewy tapioca-starch skin yields to reveal a soft yam filling.

The dessert is minimally sweet, as are the others on the menu. Zhou says some local customers have complained that it is not sweet enough, but the outlet does not provide additional syrup.

Fresh milk is served separately, on account of customers who are lactose-intolerant.

The customer base comprises 95 per cent locals and 5 per cent tourists.

Zhou observes that local diners commonly share desserts, so the cafe offers extra bowls and spoons, which are not provided at his outlets in China. The China outlets do not carry snow ice desserts as consumers there prefer hot desserts.

Fresh fruit features heavily in the Fig Snow Ice With Vanilla Scoop ($15.90), which comes with an avalanche of fragrantly sweet fresh red figs, water chestnut pearl balls and fresh mint.

Zhou is particularly proud of the Signature Mango Pomelo Sago ($7.90), which is prepared with fresh mangoes blended in-house into a thick puree, without any dilution with water. He says working with fresh mangoes can be tricky as the fruit is seasonal.

He welcomes the growing number of Chinese dessert cafes, saying: “Competition makes society improve.”

He reckons the trend could last six months to a year, but says trends are useful mainly for generating publicity. “Once the trend is over, it is still about the quality of the product,” he says.

Mozmoji: Ceramics gallery-cafe

Where: 02-01, 252 South Bridge Road
Open: 11am to 7pm (Tuesdays to Fridays); 10am to 7pm (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays); closed on Mondays
Tel: 8930-1779
Info: @mozmoji on Instagram

Mozmoji is a lifestyle space which houses a cafe in a Chinese ceramic art gallery in a Chinatown shophouse. While its address is listed as South Bridge Road, the entrance is in Temple Street, where a staircase leads to the cosy second-storey nook with a mezzanine.

An ardent admirer of Chinese ceramics, owner Olivia Zhang, 30, originally wanted to set up a ceramics studio and gallery to showcase Chinese ceramic art in Singapore. But she realised that locals might not be familiar with the artists, no matter how established they are in China or Japan.

Having seen gallery-cafes showcasing ceramics, glassware and woodcraft become popular in China, she felt incorporating a cafe would be a practical way to introduce the craft here.

She says: “I wanted customers to have contact with the ceramic ware by serving the food and drinks on ceramic ware, and have a choice of which plate or cup they want.

“Ceramic ware should be used. They are works of art, but we need to form a connection with them. They are not solely for display.”

Opened on April 12, the 1,300 sq ft, 22-seat Mozmoji has more than 1,000 pieces by over 50 ceramic artists, 80 per cent of them from Jingdezhen, China’s “porcelain capital” in Jiangxi.

The works of 35 artists are on display at any one time, with a short biodata of each artist accompanying his or her creations. Among them is the work of Yao Lan, a ceramic artist who is also an associate professor at Shanghai Art and Design Academy, known for her painted ceramics.

The ceramics are on open wooden shelves and Zhang encourages visitors to touch and handle the pieces. About 60 handmade cups and plates, valued from $25 to $102 each, are set aside for diners to choose for their orders.

More than 20 pieces have been broken since opening, including a $158 plate, but Zhang accepts it as part and parcel of using these pieces of “functional art”.

About 50 customers have asked to buy individual pieces or entire sets. Zhang refuses to sell pieces used for service. When two Singaporean customers wanted pieces they had used, she commissioned the artists to make similar ones instead.

Originally from Wuhan, Zhang moved to Singapore with her family in mid-2022 after her husband, an IT engineer, found a job here. The family became permanent residents in 2024.

A graduate in media studies from Beijing’s Communication University of China in 2018, and a former publishing house editor and scriptwriter, Zhang found it difficult to get similar work here and became a full-time mother.

She took up pottery in late 2024 and spent a month training in Jingdezhen, returning three times in 2025 for stays of one to two months.

By December, she had collected about 80 pieces and wanted a place to display them.

That month, she spent two weeks in Shanghai learning to be a barista. Back in Singapore, she taught herself pastry-making through YouTube, designing the menu and developing the recipes on her own.

The best-selling Cotton Cheesecake ($12.80), inspired by one she ate in Kobe in 2022, took a month to develop. Made with filtered Greek yogurt, New Zealand cream cheese, whipping cream and condensed milk, it takes 1½ days to make and set, with no added sugar.

The new Matcha Mousse ($12.80), launched on Aug 22, is made with Isuzu matcha powder, white chocolate, butter and pasteurised eggs, and topped with whipped cream, pistachio and sea salt.

Americano Vienna ($10.80) pairs a full-bodied Americano with freshly whipped cream and housemade crisp cocoa chips containing very little sugar.

Joy Cake: Cottagecore cake cafe

Where: 25A Lorong Liput, Holland Village
Open: 10am to 10pm daily
Tel: 8419-7976
Info: @joy.cake.sg on Instagram

Originally from Harbin, Nikita Ma, 30, runs three cafes in Hebei, China, but chose Singapore for her first overseas venture after a week-long visit here for the first time in January.

Ma, a pastry chef by training and mother to an eight-year-old girl, was attracted by Singapore’s year-round tropical weather, safety and dining scene. She also noticed how much locals enjoy desserts.

Five months later, on July 31, she opened the cottagecore-themed Joy Cake in Holland Village. Currently in Singapore on her own, she has plans for her husband and daughter to join her here later, as she hopes her daughter can study here. 

She deliberately chose a quiet corner of Holland Village for her 70 sq m cafe, which seats 20 indoors and up to eight outdoors. She designed the French cottagecore-inspired interior herself, giving it a rustic, homely feel with an electric fireplace and flower-accented straw hats displayed on the walls. 

Her cafes in Hebei are also in quiet corners, as she wants diners to experience a getaway feeling of relaxation. Active social media usage helps raise the profile of her cafes and bring them footfall in China.

She is adopting a similar approach to market her cafe here. She is also focused on keeping the quality of her cakes and drinks high to build a stable of regulars.

While she has no plans for another Joy Cake outlet in Singapore, she is open to exploring other concepts, such as a pizzeria, as she has learnt pizza-making in the course of her training.

At 16, she enrolled at Beijing New Oriental Baking and Pastry School and graduated with a diploma in pastry and baking in 2012. She went on to work at Paris Baguette and in pastry kitchens in Beijing and Harbin, including that of Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing, and also Italian restaurant Opera Bombana in Beijing, before starting her own business in 2018.

Her cafes in Hebei sell four-inch whole cakes, but within two days of opening here, she learnt that customers in Singapore prefer ordering cake by the slice.

She switched to baking six-inch cakes to sell by the slice, but customers said the slices were too small for the prices charged. Now, she prepares eight-inch cakes which are sold by the slice. Customers can also pre-order whole cakes for celebrations.  

Ma also keeps the sweetness of her cakes low. She says low-sugar treats have been the trend in China for the last decade as consumers there are cautious about sugar intake.

Many components of her cakes and drinks are prepared in-house, including about 10 varieties of fruit jam, from strawberry to pineapple. The jams are made weekly without preservatives and with minimal sugar.

Ma is particularly thrilled by the pineapples available here, which she says are of fresher quality than back home, and is now experimenting with pink guava for new desserts.

The popular Pineapple Coconut Basque Cheesecake ($14 a slice) is topped with coconut cream, baked pineapple and housemade pineapple and vanilla jam.

The top-selling Yuzu & Jasmine Basque Cheesecake ($15 a slice) combines cream cheese with jasmine green tea and is topped with yuzu cream, housemade grapefruit jam, lime and dried jasmine flowers. The cheesecake has an airy texture, accented with citrus and floral flavours.

First Sight ($10) is made with a light-roast Colombia Rose Valley cold brew, housemade strawberry and raspberry jam, jasmine green tea and a light splash of Chambord – a French raspberry liqueur – and topped with diced fresh strawberry.