Mr. Bucket, the friendly neighbourhood chocolaterie

The Wife has been following Tigerlily Patisserie on Facebook with the intention of dropping by to try their pastries. It hasn’t happened yet, primarily because they’re located in Joo Chiat, all the way in the East. Not quite all the way like in Changi, but it’s still quite a distance from us.

When she noticed their TGL x MBC bundle of bakes and bon bons, she was tempted to finally make the trip. There was no delivery option, and it was only available for pickup from either Tigerlily or their collaboration partner, Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie.

I conveniently assumed that Mr. Bucket was also located somewhere in the East, but goggled to be sure. Surprisingly, they were located in Sin Ming, just off the Upper Thomson Road stretch of eateries that we frequent.

Given that it was located practically in our neighbourhood, The Wife immediately ordered online and we found ourselves at 23 Sin Ming Road #01-15 on a hot Saturday afternoon.

Stepping through the doors offered a welcome respite from the hot and humid weather. The glass exterior and light-coloured walls gave the shop a bright and breezy feeling.

Half of the unit was occupied by their kitchen, with the other half open for retail customers. A glass wall separated the two sections, and customers could observe their busy kitchen staff churning out an endless supply of pretty little bon bons.

We spotted what we came for — two pastries from Tigerlily and six bon bons from Mr. Bucket. As the young and friendly counter staff packed our order, they explained that the two-way collaboration involved Tigerlily using their chocolates to make limited-edition pastries.

To reciprocate, they created special, also limited-edition, bon bons using fillings supplied by Tigerlily. Specifically, yuzu used in Tigerlily’s signature Beehive entremet (which I found out was a fancy way of saying cake with layered fillings) and pistachio praline used in their Pistachio Marimo.

While we were leisurely browsing and waiting, a steady stream of customers stepped in, many with young kids in tow. They all seemed to know what they wanted, and quickly picked off the chocolate bon bons on display in the refrigerated display.

The Wife was planning to get another box of 12 bon bons for a dinner party at a friend’s house that night, and was worried that all the chocolates would be wiped out by the time it was her turn to order. Thankfully, she was assured her that they had plenty of supply, and that the display was replenished regularly.

Sensing that we were slowly being reeled in by the many chocolate offerings in the shop, the chatty and friendly female counter staff astutely offered us a little sampling cup of their hot chocolate.

It was chocolatey, rich, sweet and sinfully delicious. They sold the cold version of the same drink in small bottles, and happened to have three in the fridge expiring the next day and offered them to us at half price.

Resistance was futile. We walked out the door that day with three bottles of iced chocolate, two chocolate pastries and eighteen chocolate bon bons.

The pastries was heated up for tea time that same day, and they were michin mashisoyo! I know I’m butchering the Korean language, but crazy delicious were the first two words that came to mind as I bit into the chocolate banana caramel cruffin.

Yes, we’ve been watching too many K-dramas.

We didn’t realise how famous Mr. Bucket was until that night, when The Wife was at her friend’s house. The box of 12 bon bons were parked in the fridge as they had their dinner and probably too many bottles of alcohol.

The friend’s daughter chanced upon the box and excitedly asked her mother if she could have some. Apparently, the chocolates from Mr. Bucket are quite well-known and popular among university students. Most of the 12 didn’t survive that night.

Our own box of six didn’t last long either, and we finished them off within a couple of days. We had seen many interesting flavours on display that afternoon, and had to make a repeat visit to try more of them. It was a classic Pokémon situation, where we “gotta catch ’em all!“

So, we found ourselves at 23 Sin Ming Road the very next Friday and ended up buying three dozen more bon bons. Yes, three dozen as in 36. But no, they were not purely for our own consumption.

We were meeting some friends for a sake-paired Chinese dinner that night, and thought that they might enjoy the chocolates as well. Oh, and since they were still selling the crazy delicious cruffin, we bought ourselves another one.

The bon bons by Mr. Bucket are almost too pretty to eat, but any hesitation is quickly overcome by curiosity. Flavours like Tea & Biscuits, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Bubble Tea and Mala Mild Spicy (what?!) make it almost impossible not pop them into your mouth.

One of the more interesting flavours has to be their Double Soya Sauce Caramel (double what?!), something that they created in collaboration with our favourite soya sauce brand — Kwong Woh Hing, a local manufacturer that’s been around since 1943.

It may seem like a strange combination at first, but when you think about it, good quality dark soya sauce has a rich caramelly taste that seems like it would go well with chocolate. And good quality chocolate is known to go well with a sprinkle of salt. This combo brought out the best of both.

All in all, we tried 14 different flavours over the course of a week. Co-incidentally, both The Wife and I chose the same flavours for our top and bottom three choices.

Tea & Biscuits was a clear favourite, and tastes exactly as it sounds. We had this twice, since it was also part of the TGL x MBC bundle. The first time, we could make out the distinct taste of Earl Grey, but the second one a week later seemed more like a light Pu’er.

Beehive had a gooey yuzu honey filling that coats the inside of your mouth with a sweet and citrusy flavour that went really well with the milk chocolate. Given how much of a yuzu addict The Wife is, I thought that this would have been her number one pick, but Tea & Biscuits managed to take the top spot.

I was quite intrigued by the idea of Mala-flavoured chocolate. When we bit into it, the mala-ness was clearly evident, down to the tongue-tingling numbness. But it just a touch too strange for us. Forrest was right, life is like a box of chocolates.

The other flavours that I was keen on trying were the three single-origin dark chocolates. Ranking-wise, both The Wife and I preferred the 80% over the 72%, and the 72% over the 64%. It would have been nice if they really pushed the envelope and made a hard-core 99% version.

Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie is a shop that I’d expect to find in hipster neighbourhoods like Joo Chiat and Tiong Bahru, or even in downtown Orchard Road. The fact that it’s located in Sin Ming was quite surprising, and a great find for us.

We probably wouldn’t have come across it if it wasn’t for their collaboration with Tigerlily Patisserie. Looks like we really have to make a trip down to Joo Chiat soon to check out their other cakes and pastries.