Pawa Bakery Bagel flavours reviewed: Purple Sweet Potato, Pumpkin, Pandan Pistachio, Matcha White Chocolate Sourdough, Black Sesame Walnut and Coffee Boy

I recently went on two Pawa Bakery bagel-sampling sprees because the queues were short at the time I happened to pass buy. As I love vegetable or plant flavours for pastries, I got tried all of them that were available at the time. Specifically, they were the Pandan Pistachio Bagel, Purple Sweet Potato Bagel, Pumpkin Bagel and Matcha White Chocolate Sourdough Bagel (or more accurately a Green Tea Orange Peel Bagel) on my first visit, and Black Sesame Walnut Bagel and Coffee Boy Bagel on my second. I also tried their limited edition Sakura Bagel, but featured it separately.

Before going into individual reviews, I have some overarching observations of the bread used for the bagels which I summarise in a separate section below.

Pandan Pistachio Bagel

This was the most interesting bagel that I wanted to try. I've always thought that pandan and pistachio were very complementary flavours, as both overlap in their sweet vanilla-like creamy notes, but pandan has a tinge of floral, almond, coconut and grassy notes while pistachio fills up the palate with other nutty, buttery and piney notes, even woody ones from its skin depending on how it is processed. Earlier, I also featured Kaya Pistachio Cookies and Pandan & Pistachio Mooncake as examples. This would be the fourth pastry that I am featuring with this combination, and it turned out quite different from the previous two, but in an interesting way.

First, I need to note that it seems the pandan flavour is only or mostly infused into the bread and not the filling, and likewise, the pistachio seems to refer only to the creamy and pasty filling, not the bread. There were no pistachio chunks in the bread or filling either, so it was mostly the paste.

From what I could tell, the bread's pandan flavour is extremely faint, slightly more faint than the pandan-flavoured commercial slice breads sold in Southeast Asia. Nothing like the level of pandan flavour in cakes or drinks at all. It might be similar to the level of pandan flavouring that subtly opens up a Chinese iced or soup based dessert by being infused into the syrup used to flavour the dessert. Alternatively, think of it like the minimal amount of vanilla essence used in normal butter cakes or biscuits just to brighten the flavour a bit. You don't really taste the vanilla, but the egg, butter and wheat combination seems a tad more fragrant than without it. This was similar for how the pandan flavoured the bread - barely noticeable and extremely subtle. So while I can appreciate the subtlety, I was disappointed that the bagel was named that way, because you don't name a cake or cookie a vanilla flavoured pastry unless the amount of vanilla flavour is prominent enough to notice, or to the level where you can see the black flecks of vanilla bean.

The highlight of this bagel was the pistachio paste. It was unlike any other pistachio paste I had tried before, because it had a really natural flavour and reminded me of eating whole roasted pistachios from the shell, with the skin on. There was barely any noticeable added sugar and only a bit of salt, so it was like a very lightly salted and well roasted whole pistachio flavour. Notes of nuts and beans dominated, with earthy and woody notes from the pistachio skin. It was completely different from the more enhanced pistachio pastes elsewhere which lean more fragrant and are more forward with the nutty, sweel and creamy notes. For that matter, I really enjoyed the organic and natural feeling.

Overall, I felt that the pandan flavour in the bread should be a bit more prominent, because right now, I barely notice it when just eating the bagel on its own without the filling. Once you add the pistachio filling, you don't notice it at all. They should also add a bit more salt to the bagel to better balance the nutty pistachio paste. Because of this, while it was decently enjoyable on its own, it is lacking as a standalone pastry, and I would highly recommend pairing it with a salty butter for a better gourmet experience. Nonetheless, because of the unique taste profile of the pistachio paste, it is something that I would still buy again.

Pumpkin Bagel

This pumpkin bagel also stood out for the quality and unique flavour of the filling, not so much the bagel itself ironically. 

I really enjoyed the filling because it was very natural, almost like a pure, unseasoned, steamed and mashed good quality Japanese kabocha with natural sweetness. This is different from squashes and refers to Japanese pumpkins with a dark yellow or orange colour, almost powdery or pasty texture that is non-fibrous and a dark green skin. I think they probably added something because the texture was less powdery than a plain mashed kabocha, and possibly a bit of sugar if they didn't get a top grade kabocha, but the natural pumpkin flavour was very prominent, natural and undiluted, with the natural notes of butter and bean and earthiness coming through strongly. So it was worth it just for the filling in my opinion. 

That said, the bread in this case was very plain and tasteless to me, with barely any salt. It felt like there was the same amount of salt or even less than the normal commercial sliced bread you get in the supermarket. The taste is similar to those plain breads as well.

So likewise, overall, I would buy it again for the filling, but I highly recommend pairing it with a salted butter, which I did and really enjoyed the combination. 

Purple Sweet Potato Bagel

Once again, this was another bagel where the filling shines and the bread was very bland.

The filling was excellent, with the rich floral honey top notes distinctly filling my palate. The floral notes were very distince, even with top notes of jasmine (without the indolic woody base notes). There were also notes of nuttiness and earthiness too, but they were slightly less prominent than the fragrant top notes. I also thought there were hints of wine and vanilla, but no honey unlike other Japanese sweet potatoes. It was like a steamed Japanese purple sweet potato, but somewhat more fragrant than a plain potato, so they might have enhanced it with something for the floral or vanilla notes. 

The filling also wasn't too sweet and had a very natural level of sugar, like a good quality steamed sweet potato. 

Once again, I think some salt in the bread or spread would help to complement this. I paired it with vanilla cream cheese and it was just the right level of salt (less than salted butter) and creaminess.

Matcha White Chocolate Sourdough Bagel (or perhaps "green tea orange peel bagel")

Finally, we come to the bagel that has no filling and needs to shine on its own. And thankfully, it is much better in quality.

This bagel was moister, less crumbly, bouncier and more stretchy. It was also slightly harder on the outside and so had a nice crust texture when toasted lightly, with a nice crisp crunch. It also didn't have oil to the touch and when I washed my hands after handling I didn't need to use soap.

As for the flavour, strangely, I didn't notice any white chocolate at all, and you can see this in the photos. Instead, there were these little bits of orange peel, which is what the orange patches in the photo above were (sticking out from the top of the right-side piece and towards the bottom of the left piece). This is completely different from the store's shelf label (photo below).

The green tea flavour was more of a floral Chinese green tea fragrance, not so much earthy or umami like matcha. There was only a faint hint of grassy notes that were barely noticeable. But this green tea flavour and floral notes worked well with the orange peel's citrus and herby notes for a complex fragrance that paired well with the bread. 

There was also a bit more salt in this bagel bread than the previous ones, so the overall balance was good and well executed. 

Because of the fragrant elements, this pairs well with salted butter, which is how I enjoyed it.

Black Sesame Walnut Bagel

We are back to the filling-based bagels, which is what I had on my second visit. 

But thankfully, the filling shone. There was a very fragrant black sesame filling, with dark nutty, woody and earthy notes. But they probably also used some white sesame or sesame oil because there were very fragrant brighter toasted caramel or malty notes of white sesame as well that gave it a good umami, so the filling itself was very well balanced in its flavour profile. There was also a balanced amount of salt.

Although the poster menu (photo below) did not have "walnut" in its name, the store display did label this as containing walnuts, and there was a good amount, with about maybe 1 full whole walnut broken up into bits across the entire bagel. It went well with the black sesame paste by providing some mild nutty bite.

Once again, the bread is just a dead wrapper (see how dry and bubble-less it looks in the photo), but thankfully, because of the intensity and salt of the sesame paste, this was completely fine, and the bread didn't need anything to balance it out. So this is the one earthy bagel I would recommend if you don't want to pair it with any spread and just want to enjoy it plain.

Coffee Boy Bagel

This is Pawa's attempt to imitate the local Southeast Asian version of Mexican Coffee Buns by outfits such as Rotiboy, Papparoti, or Kopi Roti, by replacing the bun part with their bagel. Unfortunately, this one simply falls flat on all fronts. 

Firstly, their firm and dry bagel format simply cannot compare with the fluffy and moist buns of local versions. They seem to have used the same drier and flatter version of their bagel that they used for the filling-based flavours unfortunately.

While there is some coating over their bagel that resembles a cookie crust, similar to the Mexican Coffee Bun, this one was thinner and somehow less crunchy despite toasting it to try to bring out the crunch. I think this might be because they used less butter or something, because I also didn't notice any butter fragrance when reheating it in the oven.

The coffee flavour was also completely unimpressive. It was not as dark or roasty as the local Roti Boy's Nanyang coffee flavour, but it was more like the cheap instant coffee's bland and toffee-like flavour. It wasn't helped by reheating either, and remained quite flat and mild.

The filling is this unimpressive bland brown cream rather than the rich umami salted butter or cheese filling you might expect from the Roti Boy version. It is the slightly pasty and dense filling in the photo that is almost the same colour as the bread. After reheating, the cream didn't melt like the Roti Boy filling would melt and moisten the bread. Instead, it just turned a darker brown and remained similar in its pasty texture. As a result, it didn't moisten the interior of the bun, and the overall experience was that it was just too dry, pasty, without buttery flavour and unenjoyable overall. 

The filling did have some extra salt added to it, which mimicked the salt in the Roti Boy filling's butter, but because of the dryness and lack of strong coffee punch, it was just too little to save the day.

If you're interested in other versions of the Mexican Coffee Bun, I also reviewed the Coffee Bun by Butterbear, Thailand and the Mocha Bun by Standard Bun, Korea.

Observations of the Bread

One overarching observation is that where there is a filling, the bagel breads themselves are generally quite plain and unflavoured. And their texture is also not particularly outstanding. They are firm, but don't have that good of a bounce and come across as rather dead and dry. As you can see from the pictures, the bagel bread is denser than normal Western bagels (except for the sourdough one), with almost no visible bubbles because they are too tiny, and with a slightly dry and powdery appearance rather than moist and spongy. I have also found some other Japanese bakeries with more interesting textures.

Despite this, they do use some oil. After handling them, I have to use soap to wash my hands. But this isn't the case for other gourmet breads and buns by Japanese-styled bakeries where water is enough and there was no greasiness left over whatsoever.

I wonder if perhaps they could adjust their use of yeast, fermentation process or use of other flours (such as rice, potato or nut powders) to achieve a moister and bouncier texture that is nonetheless firm.

It seems, however, that they intend for the focus to be more on the filling than the bread for such bagels, and perhaps they tried to cut down on the other ingredients so they could claim that it is supposedly less oily or sweet as in their poster. (Photo below, click to enlarge for clarity.)

For the one without the filling, I had no issues, so perhaps they ensure that the bread itself is made well when they think it matters. But even so, I didn't think that it was particularly high quality as a plain bread, and for the price of S$3.80, I would rather go to other gourmet bread bakeries. 

Summary

If you get a filling-based bagel, the fillings are awesome and unique, well-flavoured and very natural in taste. Be prepared for a dull bagel bread, but I would purchase them again just for the interesting unique fillings.

For their non-filled bagels, they do a much better job with the bread, but for that price (S$4.20), I would rather go for other gourmet bread bakers which sell much larger gourmet loaves, sometimes with more ingredients, for the same price.

I would avoid their Coffee Boy Bagel, however. 

For a special bagel of theirs with both good filling and a good bread experience, I would recommend their Sakura Bagel, but that might only be available during the spring season.

Other photos

Here are some photos of their packaging and shelf displays for reference.

Discover other interesting bakes

• (mentioned) Sakura Bagel by Pawa Bakery (limited edition)
• Curry Cheese Bread by Giraffa Curry Bread Specialist from Japan
• Kinako Anko Dango (Bun) by Kamome Bakery
• Kokutou Kinako Bun by Gokoku Japanese Bakery
• Matcha Scone Sandwich by Kamome Bakery
• The Original 32 Layered Tissue Bread or Thousand Layer Bread by Tous Les Jours, South Korea
• Okinawan Brown Sugar Kokutou Raisin Bun by Gokoku Japanese Bakery
• Vegetable Breads by Bakery 1946 - Whole Chestnut, Corn and Carrot
• Sweet Pumpkin Bread by Bakery 1946