Makeshake. Suck hard, people.

Written by Mu Yao, Photos by Xin Li.

We decided to drop by to visit a new up and coming milkshake concept store, selling... milkshakes, under the invitation of Daphne Ng, one of the founders of the store.

Selling freshly made milkshakes with fresh ice-cream kept no more than 2 days in a row, this places it in direct competition to "Once Upon A Milkshake". Tah-dah. Will this young upstart be able to stand up to this formidable rival, having many won over critical accolades amongst the intensely bitchy foodie blogosphere?

Having tasted Once Upon A Milkshakes offerings quite some time ago amidst all the fanfare, I have to report that while it is better than the "sweetened powder-shakes" of Macdonalds, I haven't been won over.

In fact, I haven't been won over ever since that milkshake I had in some anonymous deli down some corner of Chelsea when I went over to NYC in 2004. And I had a milkshake in the middle of winter. It was thick, creamy, not too artificially sweet, wholesome and most importantly, fresh. To say the least, I haven't been convinced by the chances of having a good milkshake in Singapore, where even the established heavyweight of BillyBombers doesn't live up to the hype. Good milkshakes are, to me, a heavy, sinful indulgence of loving, comforting creamy thick sweetness that you don't get sick of.

In fact, I recall I had some Maple thing there once (yeah, he was some cartoon character on the menu). There's this brilliant chi-chi cute chic thing that OUAM is so capable of (especially when you look at their design of their outlets and everything), buying so many kids over. Make shake's less of that I feel, more of the shake (although they do tell you to suck hard, and they sell shakes colder than your ex's heart).

Okay, on to the shakes. I had this "Champion's Breakfast" (Bottom Right), which was granola, maple syrup and raisins blended into a shake. Sounded pretty interesting, though I wasn't sure granola was one of those things that could be associated with a milkshake. A protein shake maybe, but not a milkshake. It tasted very promising at first, with the smoky sweetness of the maple syrup complete with the faint (very, faint) taste of raisins with this rich creaminess and none of the powder crap that protein shakes taste like.


But later on, once I swallowed, the granola bits kinda got stuck in my throat, which made it kind of itchy. Not a feeling that I would like to associate myself having with when drinking a milkshake. Then the maple syrup, because of coagulation (due to the cold temperature of the shake), kept getting stuck in my teeth. So hmmm. Before you jump over to OUAM anyway, let me just point out that they don't seem to do any better.... although it kinda does taste better with cereal. Hmmm.

Another that I had was the "Strawberries and Cream" - the so-called safe choice. They use cream cheese and fresh strawberries for this one, and the taste of the strawberries was pretty fresh and perky, with a slight tinge of tartness to balance out the whole sweet creamy experience of a shake. That being said, perhaps it was a little too much, for I seemed not to taste any strong dairy flavor of the cream cheese as well. But - never the less, this was a good shake, a good take for being a fresh, slightly-more-fruity-than-usual shake than most "sweet and nice and creamy and that's about it" shakes that are on the market. Perhaps a stronger cream cheese could have made this shake an even more credible one than it already is. Compared with OUAM's variant, this is more tart, if you like the nice strawberry ice cream kinda sweet kind of shake - go for OUAM's version.

The last shake I had was the one that took the cake - it was a custom blend of "Earl Grey Tea and Butterscotch Candy" (aka Wether's Original). It was like caramel/butterscotch milkshake at first, then the earl grey set in. Lovely tinge of balance that rounded up the whole shake. I would come back for seconds actually, because this shake isn't too heavy on the palette. This was a pretty brilliant suggestion from Daphne, who should seriously throw this on as part of a permanent offering.

So, conclusion: they really do have good shakes, I think, better than OUAM's offering (in which they go for the more, overwhelmingly rich and sweet and nothing else kind). Whereas OUAM's shakes do show that sinful decadence that's associated with having a milkshake well, Makeshake's offerings take it one step further, by showing that the little thing inside what you drink can all come out to show off their little flavours of their own, in your own little shake that's a little special, and a little you.

They are now having this "Make Your Shake" promotion that is currently on their website.

For more information, click here.

Makeshake

#B2-K2/K11, City Square Mall

10AM-10PM Daily

www.makeshake.com.sg

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