Have you tried a $5 cookie? I did and it made me relook at cookie as a luxurious dessert.
Regine Sum is a personal trainer, body builder and entrepreneur in a petite frame. You would not be able to relate this lady to any stereotype and that she would be selling a dessert that her fitness regime would not endorse. But Regine started the cookie business because she wanted to raise funds to visit her boyfriend in Perth back in 2018. And being a business and communications graduate, she would build a brand around the cookie.
I always though it is difficult to persuade someone to part with $$$ for these expensive cookies, especially when cookies and biscuits are considered pantry treats. But barely a fortnight passed since she started the online cookie site Nasty Cookie, she already sold more than 800 of those jumbo-sized treats. It helps that the cookies are Instagrammable.
And then she stated a brick-and-mortar store at Funan Mall after the mall has refurnished and catered to the youthful and beautiful. Now they have a cafe in Kaki Bukit (which doubles as their central kitchen) and another store in Orchard Gateway. So yes, people do part with $$$ for these expensive cookies.
These huge, messy cookies are inspired by New York’s Levain Bakery, which is famous for their 6-oz cookie artisanal cookies. Each of Nasty’s cookie weighs about 85 grams and is built upon two basic doughs: a plain chocolate chip cookie dough and a dark cocoa one. And then there’s the premium red velvet and matcha flavours, in addition to seasonal flavours like lychee. When you buy the in a half-dozen box, they are individually boxed, with heating instructions on them.
Soft and cakey within, with a mildly crunchy exterior, each palm-sized disc is generously studded with 65.5 percent chocolate couverture chips, or pure chocolate chips. They’re best eaten fresh from a warm oven (the cookies come with heating instructions) to get the best texture out of them and to ensure that the fillings ooze when you snap that Instagram photo.
Everything is part of the storyboard – a cookie creates that happy moment. When you eat one in the store, it is served in one of these “Big Mac-esque” container. And when you finished it, you get that “Oh No” exclaimer to express your feeling. Afterwards you wipe your chocolate smeared lips with the Tiffany blue napkin.
The dreamy strawberry n cream is made with strawberry cookie dough filled with strawberry cream cheese and topped with a super addictive and crunchy strawberry crumble. And the rocky road is made with raspberry-dark chocolate chip dough filled with gooey marshmallows, macadamia nuts and cranberries.
These cookies, as sinful as they look, were supposed to use less sugar and much healthier than a regular loaded cookie. But they are still made with white flour, butter and sugar — ingredients the Health Promotion Board wouldn’t happily endorse. And with the added ingredients like Reese peanut butter and chocolate cups and Lotus caramel biscuits, the sugar and calories add up. So I guess it is all marketing gimmicks, the elusive healthy cookie.
Besides cookies, the store sells Tiffany-coloured merchandise with the cookie theme, from pyjamas to bags and mugs.
And the final question as I munched into my fourth cookie – did she make her trip to Perth and was it a happy ending?
Nasty Cookies @ Orchard Gateway
Orchard Gateway #B2-10 Singapore 238858
Date Visited : Mar 2021
Wow, they look fantastic 💖