Stopped by the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf outlet at Suntec City this week and saw a chunky standee right by the entrance — bright orange-pink, with three new cold brew teas on a 2-for-S$12 promo. The standee was the kind of size that signals "this is the new flagship of the season", so worth a closer look.
The three flavours
The line is called Fresh & Fruity Cold Brew Teas, and the standee says they're "prepared with quality tea steeped cold for more than 5 hours" — the slow-extraction process that gives cold brew its softer, less-astringent profile compared to standard iced tea.
The three flavours:
- Yuzu Sencha Cold Brew Tea — sencha green tea base, with chia seeds and jelly. Yuzu is the Japanese citrus that's been everywhere in Singapore F&B over the last 18 months. Citrussy-floral on the lighter side. Nutri-Grade B on default.
- Peach Jasmine Cold Brew Tea — jasmine tea base with peach and jelly. Sweeter profile than the yuzu. Nutri-Grade B.
- Watermelon Mint Lychee Cold Brew Tea — a heavier, more cocktail-style profile. The pinkest of the three. Nutri-Grade B (the standee shows the same grade for all three on default preparation).
The 2-for-S$12 works out to roughly S$6 per drink. For comparison, single-cup specialty teas at Coffee Bean usually sit in the S$7–8 range for regular size, so the promo saves about S$2–4 across two drinks. Mathematically the right move is to buy two even if you only want one and gift the second.
The Nutri-Grade B note (and the small print that matters)
Nutri-Grade B at default preparation means the drinks land in the 5–10% sugar band for the default-recipe version. You can usually request "less sweet" or "no sugar" to drop the Nutri-Grade — most Coffee Bean baristas will do this on request. The jelly adds sugar even with reduced sweetness; the chia seeds are neutral.
The standee's bottom corner also reads "image is for illustration purposes only; available while stocks last; Nutri-Grade is based on default preparation". The "while stocks last" is the line worth paying attention to — limited-time runs like this typically last 6–10 weeks before the cups rotate out.
The new tumbler
While I was there I also clocked Coffee Bean's new Elemental Duo-Sip Tumbler — a 720 ml insulated bottle with a PU leather strap, at S$29.90 each.
The spec card showed:
- Capacity: 720 ml — generous, sits between a typical small-flask (500 ml) and the larger sports bottles (1L)
- Available in black and pink (the pink is more of a dusty rose; the black is a proper matte black)
- Two ways to drink: flip-top straw or sip lid
- BPA-free, dishwasher safe
- The leather strap is PU (vegan leather), not real leather
At S$29.90 it's competing with the Starbucks tumbler line (S$32–42 for similar capacity) and the Stanley/Owala bottles common in Singapore (S$45+ for the comparable 700ml class). If you take coffee or tea away from CBTL more than once a week, the bring-your-own-cup discount Coffee Bean offers (S$0.50 off per drink) means the tumbler pays for itself in roughly 60 visits — about a year for a daily drinker.
Stack with CBTL Rewards if you're a member
The 2-for-S$12 promo is in addition to your normal Bean Points earn rate (5 Bean Points per S$1 spent, where 1 Bean Point = S$0.01 off). So buying two drinks at S$12 earns 60 Bean Points = S$0.60 toward your next visit. Not a meaningful saving on its own, but the membership stacking is the reason CBTL Rewards is quietly one of the better café loyalty programmes in Singapore — see our CBTL Rewards complete guide for the long version.
Honest take
For S$12 you're getting two specialty cold brew teas that would normally run ~S$15–16 separately. The promo is competitive without being headline-shattering — but the drinks themselves are new, the cold-brew process is genuinely different from the standard iced-tea quick-extraction, and the yuzu sencha specifically is worth trying if you like lighter, more grown-up tea flavour profiles.
The tumbler is a separate decision. If you already own a 700ml insulated bottle, you don't need it; if you're in the market for one and you prefer the dusty-rose aesthetic over the Starbucks blue-green palette, S$29.90 is a fair price.
