Singapore's TWG gives Gen Z-ers an ultra-glam tea room experience for $10. Its CEO says affordable luxury is the name of the game.

• TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee, with their ultra-maximalist interiors, exude luxury.
• But products in their cafés start at around $10.
• The brands' CEO says he wants people to be able to afford a luxurious experience at a low price.

Stepping into a TWG Tea store in Singapore is a sensory overload.

The store is designed to be ultra-maximalist. Golden tins of hundreds of different tea blends are stacked on the walls, and warm ambient lighting and polished checkered floors make it feel like a palace.

While the interiors and the products' packaging scream luxury, the packaged teas start at around 30 Singapore dollars, or $22.

If one chooses to dine in, one can choose teas from an extensive tea book consisting of over 800 varieties. Servings of the selected teas — brought out in round, gold teapots — start at SG$12, containing about 3 cups worth of drink.

Taha Bouqdib, the CEO of the Singaporean company V3 Gourmet, which owns TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee, told BI that keeping prices low is a top priority for him.

"When you enter our store, even from $10, you are our client already," he said.

A set of five macarons at TWG Tea's outlet in Marina Bay Sands, one of Singapore's biggest malls, retails for SG$12.50. For comparison, Angelina, another upscale café in MBS located close to TWG, sells a set of four macaroons for SG$19, per its website.

TWG Tea's sister brand, Bacha Coffee, offers the same luxe experience. Red and gold boxes of coffee blends are stacked on the ceiling, and products are displayed on shiny golden shelves.

Like TWG Tea, it offers affordable luxury, too. The Bacha Coffee outlet in MBS sells croissants for SG$10 and pre-packaged coffee boxes for SG$32.

Affordable luxury

TWG Tea started in Singapore in 2008 and is now sold in over 100 locations globally. Bacha Coffee, founded in Morocco in 1910 and revived by V3 Gourmet in 2019, sells products in 28 stores around the world.

Bouqdib said that young people — even those without deep pockets — are great for TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee's business.

He said he wanted to price his products so that children or students with some spare pocket money could buy them as gifts or to pamper themselves.

Bacha, in particular, has been attracting a young clientele, he said. This customer base is looking for premium, good-quality products and is willing to spend "a couple of dollars more" on quality coffee, he added.

Keeping prices on the lower side has meant that TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee have been largely spared from the ongoing luxury slump, he said.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the luxury industry took a hit when "aspirational" luxury shoppers scaled back on spending. In 2024, luxury spending stagnated, and big brands saw their share prices drop.

Bouqdib said luxury buyers feeling the pinch were less likely to spend thousands of dollars on expensive handbags and watches. But they still craved a luxe experience — which is where TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee are attempting to position their brands.

And Bouqdib says he thinks simplicity and authenticity are best — even in a market where there can be hundreds of permutations for coffee orders.

His stores "don't have this big machine for espresso with the barista behind," he said. They prepare the coffee as in the old days, he said. In Bacha stores, the coffee is served in gold kettles.

"I think the original always is the winner," Bouqdib said. "To go back to the reality, to go back to how I can appreciate a nice cup of coffee."