On a quest for Singapore’s best pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year 2026

According to Google, pineapple tarts are by far the most popular Chinese New Year snack, “consistently dominating sales across both Singapore and Malaysia”. So it’s no wonder that everyone and their aunt – even pretzel specialist Auntie Anne’s is selling tarts this year – is jumping on the bakewagon.

Yet, despite the mind-boggling number of options available, finding a version worth those calories and increasingly harder-to-stomach price tags feels tougher than ever. Pineapple tarts are one of the most laborious snacks to produce – cooking your own pineapple jam, for example, takes hours of grating the fruit then stirring it over a stove. So many bakers have unsurprisingly come up with shortcuts that consume less time and can extend their shelf life, like using factory-made jams. And that, we theorise, has impacted taste.

Tasty pineapple tarts are harder to find these days. It’s not just us. When we asked one foodie friend if she could recommend any brands that she’d tried, she replied glumly: “Not in recent years.” Another said that she only buys tarts if she’s gifting them. “If it’s for myself, I’ll make them because I like the old-school style and they don’t make them like that anymore.”

However, we managed to find eight worthy ones.

All of which serves to explain why this particular list of “best pineapple tarts” is so short. We paid for them ourselves, anonymously, and tried 32 types of tarts in all, from major makers to boutique cafes and home bakers. Ultimately, we had to whittle it down to the eight we’ve featured below from our originally planned 10. Because we just couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend that you spend your hard-earned dough on the rest.

As with everything edible, preferences vary. So our tasting panel of writers, editors, and non-industry participants tried to take a broad range of preferences into consideration by sampling tarts in all shapes and sizes, and with different types of pastry, from melt-in-the mouth to those with a rougher crumb and a firm snap.

Personally, we prefer open-faced tarts with a slightly sturdy, almost biscuit-like pastry that doesn’t smack of milk powder or disintegrate the moment you pick it up. Topped with jam that leans tangy, a tad chunky and fibrous, and is tinged with clove and cinnamon – just like how good nonya pineapple tarts were made in the old days. 

Sadly, if we applied all those filters we’d have nothing left on the list.

So we just decided to treat each option on its own merit and ask broad questions, like: did the pastry taste fresh? Was the pineapple jam cloyingly sweet or just jammy enough, and did it pair well with the pastry? Was the pineapple-to-pastry ratio healthy? For consistency, we tried to focus only on original versions instead of flavour variants. We also chose places that hadn’t already closed their orders (as of late January).

Some tarts fell out of consideration at first touch – like the open-faced version from one brand whose pineapple blobs had a habit of gleefully sliding off their pastry bases.

But the yummy ones made up for all that, and though there were few, we still ended up eating far too many for our own good. Here are the ones which finally made the list and which we can honestly tell our friends (and you!) that we recommend.

1. BENGAWAN SOLO PREMIUM PINEAPPLE TARTS, S$58.80 FOR 680g TUB

Every Chinese New Year, we hear whispers of these pineapple tarts and how good they are. But they sell out so fast, that we’ve never managed to get our hands on any. This year, we hounded the sales auntie at the Takashimaya store until she told us when they would be on shelves, then grabbed them the day they were out. 

Unlike Bengawan Solo’s regular, smaller, more affordable pineapple tarts (the cylindrical ones at $28 for 330g), which are machine-produced, these larger orbs are finished by hand daily and carry more handmade honey pineapple filling. The jam is lovely for a mass-produced item: lightly textured, sweet, and perked up with a bit of zestiness.

Its pastry also doesn’t contain any sugar or cheese, like in the normal version, which lets the Australian butter (there’s more of it in this premium version) shine through better. Why so limited in stocks? Henry Liew, 48, Bengawan Solo director (and son of the bakery’s founder, Anastasia), explains: “These are much more labour intensive to make”. 

While we enjoyed these tarts fresh for a crisper bite, Henry says he prefers them two weeks after they’re baked, “when the jam starts to ferment slowly and there’s a bit of an alcoholic aftertaste”. You just have to have faith in their deliciousness if you’re buying them, because these babies are so precious, Bengawan Solo doesn’t offer samples. “There’s not enough to go around!” we were told.

VERDICT: 9/10

Available at selected Bengawan Solo stores and Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration store.

2. TIGERMOM KITCHEN HOMEMADE PINEAPPLE TARTS, S$28 FOR 27 PIECES

When she’s not roaring at her kids, self-confessed stay-at-home “tiger mum” Grace Tan, 40, runs an under-the-radar home business selling pineapple tarts, dinner bentos and sambal belacan. All while taking care of three kids aged 16, 19, and 22. The tarts were just for family and friends at first, until they encouraged her to start selling them online, which is when she set up an Instagram account for her business in 2022. Now the baked treats sell out regularly, and we can taste why.

The buttery, melt-in-the-mouth pastry balls (made with Australian butter) wrap perfectly around the balanced and moist pineapple jam in just the right pastry-to-jam ratio. These were by far the most aromatic tarts we had as well – merely popping open the jar made this writer’s mouth water. 

When pressed for more details on her magic formula, however, Tan would only say that she uses “good and high quality ingredients”. While she mainly makes the tarts during Chinese New Year, she’ll sometimes do batches throughout the year if orders come in. Why did we deduct half a point for this over Bengawan Solo’s premium tarts? The pastry here has a slightly underbaked quality which this writer personally likes, but may not be for everyone.

VERDICT: 8.5/10

For ordering and purchase information, go to TigerMom Kitchen.

3. CHU AND CO PINEAPPLE BALLS, S$26 FOR 18 PIECES

If you live in the Serangoon Garden area, chances are you’ve heard of this rustic-hip takeout-only bakery with breads that are so good, people bring their own chairs to camp outside the store to eat. This year is the first time owner-bakers Yeo Si Rui and Goh Pheik Ling have launched their extremely addictive pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year, which take the form of delicate sunny orbs. 

The tender pastry contains salted French butter mixed with canned Golden Churn (for that old-school flavour, Yeo says), and cradles dollops of a subtly tangy jam made from scratch with fresh Malaysian pineapples that they grate by hand. We also love the chic packaging – a plastic jar with a silver metal lid fastened with a minimalist sticker wishing customers peace and joy.

VERDICT: 8/10

For ordering and purchase information, go to Chu and Co.

4. THE LIM'S KITCHEN GOLDEN PINEAPPLE GEMS, S$28 FOR 24 PIECES

The Lim’s Kitchen is run by Rebecca Lim’s talented older baker-brother, Daniel, 40, and is known for its sourdough bread and flaky pastries. We decided to give their made-fresh-daily tarts a go after several foodie friends told us it’s where they’ve been getting their pineapple tarts for the past couple of years, and we can see why these are so popular.

The light shortbread pastry is made using Golden Churn unsalted foil-wrapped butter, which Lim says was picked for its “rich, nostalgic buttery notes” and costs more than their usual butters. It is deliciously crumbly. The pineapple jam – the product of a painstaking four-year collaboration between a supplier and The Lim’s Kitchen – has a sassy bite. The 1:1 pastry-to-pineapple ratio is also just right. If we had to nitpick, we’d say that the tarts are a little heavy on the egg wash, which makes them look stiff – though that didn’t prevent us from polishing off half a jar in a day.

VERDICT: 7.5/10

For ordering and purchase information, go to The Lim’s Kitchen.

5. JOYUS PASTRIES PINEAPPLE TARTS, S$32 FOR 28 PIECES

This is our personal go-to for pineapple tarts. We’ve been buying tubs of these open-faced munchkins since Joyus sold them out of a pushcart at Raffles Place in the early 2000s. We return not because of loyalty, but because they staunchly produce the same, consistently yummy version year after year. Even after so long, they’ve kept their operations to a modest capacity under an HDB block in Ang Mo Kio, where you can walk in to buy their treats (the alternative is to Whatsapp them for delivery).

These tarts possibly have our most favourite pastry – they’re firm, with a good snap and an almost savoury flavour. A nice contrast to the generous mound of chewy, made-from-scratch pineapple jam that perches on top of each disc. If only they would change the flimsy plastic container the tarts are packaged in, which aren’t airtight so the pastries lose their freshness in a couple of days. We recommend transferring yours to an airtight container as soon as you get them.

VERDICT: 7/10

For ordering and purchase information, WhatsApp Joyus at 9618 1238

6. NESUTO BROWN BUTTER VANILLA PINEAPPLE TARTS, S$38.90 FOR 32 PIECES

With their chic pineapple-printed boxes, these beautifully packaged tarts remind us of Japanese omiyage and are perfect for Chinese New Year gifting. The petite tarts themselves are made with Japanese-like precision, and have a firm, slightly nutty pastry made with “European butter” that crumbles in the mouth and pairs well with the mild-flavoured pineapple jam. We were slightly put off by the “vanilla” label at first, fearing that the tarts would taste of fake vanilla essence, but thankfully, there’s no hint of that.

The vanilla merely serves to add a soft aromatic finish to the pastry. If you prefer punchier flavours in your tarts, go for the superior yuzu version – where the same pineapple jam is jazzed up with a shot of sharp, bitey yuzu peel soaked in fresh juice (our editor rates this citrus version 8/10).

VERDICT: 7/10

For ordering and purchase information, go to Nesuto.

7. BAKE INC PREMIUM TRADITIONAL FLOWER PINEAPPLE TARTS, S$40.80 FOR 550g TIN

This heartland chain has consistently won praises for its pineapple tarts over the past decade or so. That said, in previous years, the 8 DAYS team was split over them because some of us found the jam too sweet and the quality hit-or-miss. 

We’re happy to report that this year’s recipe has been adjusted so it’s more balanced – if anything, it has a lot more zing now than the average pineapple jam. According to the brand’s manager, the pineapple filling is made in-house with fresh pineapples. Even if the messy tops look, as our colleague remarked, “like they’ve been moulded by an enthusiastic toddler”.

The crispy pastry base baked with “100 per cent New Zealand Anchor butter” and similar to a French sable, is as good as we remember it to be. Although, the degree of baked-ness in our tub swung wildly from pale yellow to scorched tan. 

The tarts also come in a fancy, giftable orange-and-gold tin. You, no doubt, pay for this, since prices have risen (again!) from S$20.80 in 2020 and S$38.80 in 2024 to S$40.80 this year, which is eye-poppingly exorbitant for tarts from a heartland bakery, “premium” tag or not.

VERDICT: 7/10

Available at Takashimaya’s Lunar New Year Festive Celebration store.

8. GLORY PINEAPPLE TARTS ROUND SHAPE, S$15.09 FOR 400g TUB

Why is this no-frills jar included in our list of eight recommended tarts? Mainly because it’s the most decent-tasting value for money option we tried. Plus, it’s easily available at selected supermarkets. Local food producer Glory closed its Katong shop in 2019 and have since moved production overseas to Malaysia and Indonesia, though some items (like their kueh bangkit and kaya) are still made in Singapore. We haven’t bought their tarts for years because we didn’t think standards would be the same. But a tip-off from a friend led us back on the path to Glory – and we were pleasantly surprised by how good the bakes still taste.

The pastry is fresh and buttery, with a good snap to it, and we appreciate that the company still takes the trouble to top each tart with a traditional pastry decoration, even if the previous, finer lattice pattern has been changed to a simpler ninja star-like one. This writer found the pineapple jam too sour, but other tasters on the panel enjoyed how zippy it was and how it helped to reduce the potential jelak, or overly rich, taste. It really is not bad for the price. 

VERDICT: 6.5/10

Available at selected supermarkets like Fairprice. More info via website.

Other tarts we tried which didn’t make it to our recommended list:

1. Amethyst
2. August Signature
3. Baker’s Well
4. Bakery Brera
5. Chalk Farm
6. Chilli Padi
7. Da Jia Le
8. Ding Bakery
9. Garden Pastry
10. HarriAnns
11. Home’s Favourite
12. Juz Bread
13. Kele
14. La Levain
15. Ling’s Patisseries
16. L’eclair Patisserie
17. Mdm Ling Bakery
18. Mirana
19. Nakanishi Cakes
20. Old Seng Choong
21. Oriental Kopi
22. PastryLove
23. Rasa Sayang
24. Tai Chong Kok

This story was originally published in 8Days.

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