KIAM

Half a pinch of salt.
A third of the sugar.

Kiam is Hokkien for salty and Singlish for stingy. Both are true: five sodas made from fresh fruit and sea salt, with about a third of the sugar of an ordinary soda. Bottled in Tai Seng, sold on Saturdays and in eight shops.

See the five sodas Where to buy
Calamansi and Sour Plum, 250 ml bottle KIAM 咸 Calamansi & Sour Plum 250 ml Calamansi & Sour Plum the original Pink Grapefruit and Sea Salt, 250 ml bottle KIAM 咸 Pink Grapefruit & Sea Salt 250 ml Pink Grapefruit & Sea Salt bitter finish Pineapple and Sea Salt, 250 ml bottle KIAM 咸 Pineapple & Sea Salt 250 ml Pineapple & Sea Salt sweetest of the five Roselle and Sea Salt, 250 ml bottle KIAM 咸 Roselle & Sea Salt 250 ml Roselle & Sea Salt the dry one Watermelon and Sea Salt, 250 ml bottle, seasonal KIAM 咸 Watermelon & Sea Salt 250 ml Watermelon & Sea Salt seasonal, until December
A small bowl of sea salt flakes on a wooden table, a few flakes scattered around it
Sea salt flakes. 150 mg goes into each bottle — half a pinch.

Salt makes fruit taste like itself.

Every drinks stall in Singapore knows this already: a sour plum in the lime juice, plum powder on the guava, a shake of salt on the pineapple. Salt turns bitterness down and turns the fruit up, and once it does, you stop needing so much sugar to get there.

So we put half a pinch of sea salt in every bottle and took the sugar down to 7–9 g. An ordinary cola, poured to the same 250 ml, has 26.5 g. You taste the calamansi, not the syrup.

In one bottle, 250 ml
Fruit20–30% juice, pressed here
Sea salt150 mg
Sugar7–9 gan ordinary cola: 26.5 g
Energyabout 35 kcal
Anything elsecarbonated water. That’s it.
A tall glass of pale sparkling drink over ice with a lime wheel and mint, on a pale yellow table

Cold. That’s the whole instruction.

  1. From the bottle, straight from the fridge, as cold as it will go.
  2. Over ice with a squeeze of lime, if it’s the calamansi.
  3. Half and half with soda water if you find it too salty. Some people do.
  4. With food. It was worked out at a table, not at a desk.

Saturdays at the door. Otherwise, eight shops.

The Tai Seng unit rolls up its door every Saturday, 9 am to 1 pm. A bottle is S$5, six are S$27, any mix, and you can taste before you decide. The rest of the week, these shops keep it cold:

  • Lengkok Coffee Tiong Bahruall five
  • Ninefold Grocer Katongall five, and six-packs
  • Sunbird Records & Coffee Jalan Besarall five
  • Third Uncle Minimart Serangoon Gardenscalamansi, roselle

All eight stockists, the map, and the door

Two tall glasses of sparkling citrus drink with ice and rosemary on a grey table

People who drink it

Four friends laughing around an outdoor dinner table, glasses of cold drinks in front of them
Wei Ling’s birthday, Punggol. Two six-packs, gone before the cake.
A woman in sunglasses and a denim jacket sipping a green drink through a straw in front of a pink wall
Priya, Tiong Bahru. Calamansi, on the way to work.

“I bought one because of the name and six because of the grapefruit.”

Marcus at the Saturday door, in July

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