Kakuida’s Kurozu @ Icon Village: Black Vinegar Infused Beverages, Donuts & Desserts!

Today was the Grand Opening of Kakuida’s Kurozu located at Icon Village. In Japan, people consume kurozu as part of their daily diets and Kakuida’s Kurozu wants us Singaporeans to do the same for its health benefits. Many Japanese women even take kurozu as part of their daily beauty regime for a more radiant and spirited complexion, count me in!

Kurozu actually stands for “black vinegar” and this taste has been infused in everything on their menu in different ways. Here are the health benefits of Kurozu that’ll make you want to give this drink a go:

1) Relieves stress and body fatigue by breaking down lactic acid
2) Detoxifies the liver
3) Stabilises blood pressure and prevents arteries from hardening
4) Boosts metabolism and facilitates better blood circulation
5) Promotes digestion and reduces constipation
6) Breaks down fat, lowers cholesterol (lowkey my favourite benefit)
7) Protects against bacterial infection and strengthens the immune system
8) Stabilises any potential spikes in blood glucose levels

The kurozu here has been aged for 3 years, giving it a more earthy and mellow taste and hence goes so well with sweet beverages or food. For all the beverages, customise your sugar level to your liking. If you’re not a fan of vinegar, you might want to choose a higher sugar level to make it more pleasant to drink. On the otherhand, if you’re more health conscious, you could go for the 30% or even 0% if you’re up for it.

Under the Hot Kurozu range, you should give the Hot Honey Ginger Kurozu with Orange Peel ($3.90) a try. Out of all the drinks I tried, this one had the strongest taste of vinegar but made pleasant with the honey. If you’re not a vinegar or ginger lover, you should give this a miss as these 2 are the more prominating flavours in the drink.

The Organic Fruits Kurozu range is created by infusing Kakuida’s Kurozu with premium-quality organic fruits to extract its essence and flavour. This range comes in orginal or sparkling. The taste of vinegar in the Original Apple Organic Fruits Kurozu ($5.50) (left pic, right drink) was also a little strong, but not as strong as the one above. As you might expect, the vinegar is more overpowering than the apple but they do use real fruits in their drinks!

If you want to have a taste of the kurozu, but are afraid you won’t like it, the Homemade Kurozu Ice Lemon Tea ($3.90) (left pic, left drink) from the Straight Tea range would be perfect for you. At first sip, you’ll taste the familiar taste of ice lemon tea but a tinge of sour vinegar will come along at the end. This is also their signature item so do try it as it’s a safe choice too!

Know you hate vinegar, but still want the benefits of it? The Ice Blended/ Smoothie range is made for you. The Mango Smoothie ($6.50) (right pic) was probably my winner as the kurozu taste was almost non-existent but I felt good drinking it as I knew I was still consuming it! The smoothie was so smooth with no bits of ice blend inside, such a comforting drink.

Do note that you should consume all beverages within 2 hours!

Moving on to the can-smell-from-a-mile-away, best-smelling baked donuts. These donuts aren’t going to be your glazed fluffy donuts, but more like a denser donut (kind of like a cake-like texture) and hence more flavour in each bite. Yes, kurozu even made its way into the donuts so these can even be guilt-free donuts!

In order of best to least best-tasting donut, I’m gonna say Matcha ($2.20), Original ($1.90), Chocolate ($2.20) and Sweet Potato ($2.20). Honestly, all 4 of them were so good and they even come in + chocolate chip ($0.30 each) form. I enjoyed the matcha one most as the taste of matcha was on point but it was slightly denser than the original one. The original donut was much fluffier and you could really taste the sweet, original taste of the donut. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really taste the sweet potato in the donut. Plus if you have it with chocolate chip, it tasted quite similar to the chocolate donut so we feedbacked about this.

I simply love soft serves so imagine having soft serve with kurozu too? Treating myself to a yummy dessert while having the benefits of like losing weight is an 11/10 for me.

The Kuromitsu Soft Serve ($4.50) is a black sugar with black vinegar sauce, drizzled atop the soft serve. The sweetness of the soft serve complimented the black vinegar very well, it was my favourite kurozu combi!

You also have to try my winning flavour, the Genmaicha Soft Serve ($4.50) (right). It is basically soft serve with sprinkles of brown rice on top, balancing the dessert with a good amount of sweetness and bitterness.

Menu: