If you thought I was merely making a bad pun in the title, let me clarify - I'm not joking about the rockin' rock candy that Sweet Enchantment (located in Vivocity) has to offer! If Sweet Enchantment rock candy were rock musicians, they would be straight-edge. That's because they're made of all-natural flavourings and colourings, as described by Sweet Enchantment on their Facebook page:
South East Asia's first All-Natural Rock Candy Shoppe - Our range of products include Rock Candy, Lettered Rocks, Sugar Art, Lollipops and all things sweet! - made from all-natural ingredients. That means no artificial colouring or artificial flavouring. (Example, Orange and Yellow comes from carrot skin, and Purple comes from grapeskin!).
Remember my homemade rock candy comparison post pitting two local rock candy shops - Sweet Enchantment and Sticky - against each other? That certainly garnered quite a bit of attention! Getting back to the present, I recently visited Sweet Enchantment to check out their new flavours. Bernard Chow, "Lollipop Farmer" cum co-founder of Sweet Enchantment (along with his wife) kindly invited me to drop by their store and sample some of the newer flavours that were recently made available: Hachimitsu Honey, Matcha Green Tea, and the new candy mix "Sweet Treats", which is a mix of Caramel, Honey and Milk Jam (Dulce de Leche) rock candy. Read on for a review of these flavours!
I hadn't visited Sweet Enchantment in a while, and it was really a treat to be surrounded by so many jars of glorious candy, the colourful display on the shelves delighting the visual senses even before they excite the tastebuds.
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| Rows and rows of rock candy! |
Between sampling the new flavours of rock candy and taking pictures, I had a chat with Bernard, who told me the story of how Sweet Enchantment was founded. It was a very inspiring story about chasing one's dreams, and since I mentioned to Bernard my own dream of setting up some kind of creative enterprise (right now it's still in the works!), he gave me some very useful advice. He said that I should be prepared for those discouraging moments when I may feel like giving up, but during those moments, to remember my vision and keep working toward it to achieve my objective. I thought that was a lovely piece of encouragement, and am sharing it with all of you readers in hopes that you will remember to persevere in all your endeavours even through difficult times.
And now, for the taste test! I received 3 jars of rock candy in the following flavours: Matcha Green Tea, Hachimitsu Honey and the Sweet Treat candy mix (contains Hachimitsu Honey, Caramel and Milk Jam).
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| Clockwise from bottom left: Caramel, Green Tea, Milk Jam, Hachimitsu Honey |
Hachimitsu Honey
Of the lot, I liked the Hachimitsu Honey flavour the most. It was sweet, but not cloying, and is the best honey candy I've ever tasted! Other honey candies tend to have this strange aftertaste that doesn't suit my tastebuds, but Bernard said that they created this with a special type of honey to eliminate the cloying aftertaste.
Caramel
I mixed up this flavour with the Milk Jam rock candy as it simply tasted too mild. It was an effective palate cleanser compared to the stronger flavours of Milk Jam and Matcha Green Tea, but I would have preferred a stronger taste. I love the rainbow design on the candy, though. It's absolutely adorable and cheers me up when I look at it.
Milk Jam
I initially thought Milk Jam was the rock candy with the rainbow design, however it's actually the rock candy with the musical note design! Unlike Rabbit Candy and other kinds of milk candy that have that milky aftertaste, this one was just much stronger in flavour and didn't have much of a milky aftertaste. I like the musical note design on the candy. As a pianist and singer, it really calls out to my musical sensibilities.
Matcha Green Tea
While matcha/green tea is usually my most favourite flavour for candies and other sweets, somehow this version didn't quite appeal to my tastebuds. It's sweet with a slightly sour aftertaste, which is fine, but I prefer my green tea sweets with a touch of bitterness, mirroring the bitter aftertaste of a good brew of green tea. Nevertheless, I enjoyed munching on these as well!
And with that, I'm one very happy taste-tester.
I really enjoyed eating these candies, and would recommend them to you too, especially the Hachimitsu Honey flavour! For a taste of milk-and-honey sweetness, get the Sweet Treats Mix (contains Caramel, Milk Jam and Hachimitsu Honey rock candies). It's the most recent release by Sweet Enchantment!
All of these flavours retail at Sweet Enchantment from ~S$6 for a small jar (i.e. the jar on the left), S$7.90-8.90 for a medium-sized jar (i.e. the jar in the middle) and ~S$13 for a large jar (i.e. the jar on the right).
Sweet Enchantment has definitely blossomed as a creative enterprise in the food and gourmet industry due to Bernard's vision and perseverance, and I hope it continues to grow in creativity and recognition. Do support Sweet Enchantment and drop by their store when you are in Vivocity - you'll be in for a treat!
EDIT: I had the Milk Jam and Caramel flavours and designs mixed up in my original post, but a very astute reader has alerted me of the mistake. I've since edited the post based on the correction. Thanks for visiting and responding, Maya!
