The Best Souvenirs: Coffee Lessons and Cultural Discoveries in Singapore

Hello, Worldmappin fam! 💖 Hope you're all doing well and having a wonderful day ✨

Our trip to Singapore wasn’t just about visiting the famous tourist spots. On this trip, we wandered other places we’ve never been. We saw incredible things, our taste buds explored, and we also learned a lot.

First, we had a Factory Tour at Guan Hin Coffee Powder Manufacturing. This was one of our short, yet favorite educational trips in Singapore, especially since most of us are coffee lovers ☕️

Guan Hin Coffee Powder Manufacturing is a factory that roasts coffee beans. They supply most of the coffee shops in Singapore. They also offer tours of their coffee factory to continue sharing the culture and traditional coffee making with others.

As soon as we arrived outside, you could immediately smell the coffee! 😍 They welcomed us warmly and showed us the whole process. At first, the coffee beans were still green and had moisture, so they had to be dried in a dryer. Then, they went to the rotated heating drum where the roasting process took place. It is set at a high temperature, and this is where the coffee beans turn brown. This is where its flavor and aroma develop. The continuous rotation and mixing of the coffee beans ensure even roasting.

I took a piece of coffee bean to see what it looked like halfway through the process 👀

The final stage is cooling the coffee beans. Here, the temperature of the coffee beans is lowered to room temperature. To turn the roasted beans into powdered coffee, they use a grinding machine before packing them. They gave each of us 1 kg. pack of ground drip coffee as a souvenir. What a great gift since my mom and my cousins at home love coffee! 💖

Of course, they also showed us how to brew it. They first put it in a container with a cloth filter then poured hot water. Just let it drip, and you have coffee! It smells so good 💕 If you are a coffee lover, you will definitely enjoy this wonderful tour.

That same afternoon, we went to other places. We passed by Orchard, and we went to ION Orchard, a shopping mall there. While walking, the colorful mannequins caught my attention. They looked like frozen statues wearing stylish suits.

Later in the evening, we went to Chinatown. Even at night, the place was still very lively and there were a lot of people there. We were planning to go shopping, but our friends said they were in Bugis Street. So, we just ordered something to eat at Mei Heong Yuen Dessert. We were delighted with the size and shape of the snow ice mountains so we just shared it.

When we were going to Bugis, we got a little lost. Our friends had also finished shopping and according to them, the shops there were almost closed. While walking, we noticed that there were many Indians in the area. It felt like we had landed in India because the buildings were unique and the street signs there were also written in Hindu. They call that place Little India.

We just kept walking until we saw Mustafa Centre. So in the end, we ended up shopping here because it's open 24 hours. There were still many people shopping here even though it was late at night. We bought chocolates and other souvenirs. It's also good to shop here because they sell variety of goods at lower prices and they're all in one place, so you won't get confused when you’re trying to search for something.

We realized that there are really different races living in Singapore. Even though the population is dominated by Chinese, there are also Indians and other nationalities. It's feels so great that they welcome other races from different backgrounds and cultures. And despite their differences, it’s impressive that they maintain discipline and order. We were able to walk safely even though it was late at night.

We really enjoyed that day! 💖 Apart from the physical souvenirs, the best souvenirs we had were the lessons we learned and the beautiful places we visited ✨