Right outside of Promenade MRT station (Exit C) is this modern Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)-restaurant, Synthesis that had set up an ice cream bar right at the entrance of the restaurant. The storefront resembles a TCM shop – wooden cabinets with trays of Chinese medicinal herbs. You wouldn’t have thought that it is actually a restaurant which is just right beside 7-Eleven.
They have set up this Traditional Chinese Medicine-inspired ice cream stand last year August 2025 and recently it has garnered some attention on social media.
The ice-cream stand is quite inconspicuous. You would have probably walk past this spot many times without actually knowing that they offer ice cream made using TCM herbs like Hawthorn and red dates.
TCM-inspired Ice Cream
This concept of infusing TCM herbs into ice cream is not new. There’s a similar TCM-inspired gelato shop in Shanghai that offers this icy cold treat. But according to TCM principles, food should not be eaten cold and cold treats like ice cream doesn’t balance the yin and yang in our bodies. Thus having such TCM-inspired cold desserts seems counterintuitive and contradicting but people (like myself) are into it.
Some of the TCM herbs like red dates and dried logans offer a unique flavour – unlike regular ice cream flavours like strawberry, chocolate or vanilla. Over here at Synthesis, they carry 8 ice cream flavours. A few of the ice cream flavours are on rotation as they are seasonal.
Some of the flavours include: Red Date Longan, Hawthorn Açaí Berry, Chrysanthemum Tea with Candied Ginseng, Soya Roselle and Soya Wheatgrass.
When I was there, I manage to test out all the 8 flavours which include botanical flavours like Osmanthus Oolong and Rose Honey ice cream. The flavours that stood out to me were the Red Date Logan and Hawthorn Acai Berry. According to their staff, there were also the bestsellers. I do think that they would need to collate more feedback and do more R&D to improve the other flavours.
The rest of the ice cream flavours did not stood out to me. They were either too light in flavour or not well-balanced.
Apparently, they have another ginseng ice cream flavour but it wasn’t available that day when I drop by.
Red Date Logan Ice Cream (Must-try)
If there’s one flavour you need to get, it has got to be the Red Date Logan. You can taste the sweetness of the red dates and logans in this ice cream. There are also bits of red dates and logans in it. The flavour is right on point and the sweetness of the ice cream is just about right.
As for the Hawthorn Acai Berry, it tastes like acai berry sorbet with a hint of Hawthorn flavour. Somehow, the Hawthorn complemented so well with the acai berry flavour. It’s a winner for me and if you’re an acai lover, you will fall head over heels with this flavour too.
Verdict
Overall, it is an interesting ice cream concept that is worth checking out. It is also priced reasonably. They charge by the cup and each cup has 2 small scoops of ice cream. Each cup is $6 for standard flavours and $7 for premium flavours. If you get 2 cups at one go, it cost only $10 (standard) and $12 (premium). It is overall not too expensive.
Synthesis
Address: 3 Temasek Blvd, Tower 4 #01-643, Singapore 038983
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