Cool BEANS

Delve into the rise of specialty coffee in Malaysia.

- TAN SU FEN

There was a time when many Malaysians would scoff at the idea of a RM10 cup of coffee — inevitably, some still do— yet, it is now an almost common sight to see a specialty coffee shop brimming with the crowd on weekends, while serving as an urban oasis for remote workers on a weekday. 'That, however, doesn't signal the death of traditional kopitiams which kickstarted Malaysia's coffee culture back in the colonial era. It is not a rare occurrence to stumble upon a row of shops boasting both kopitiams and specialty coffee cafes, showing that both old and new-wave coffee have their pull.

Kopitiams typically serve Robusta coffee, dark roasted with margarine and sugar, giving it its distinctive, bold flavour profile. Meanwhile, the specialty coffee movement prioritises quality over quantity (coffee scoring 80 points or above on the Specialty Coffee Associations 100-point scale), emphasising the entire seed-to-cup process. 'This entails knowing exactly where the Arabica beans of the coffee we are drinking comes from, down to the farm name and location, as well as its varietal and process. Coffee professionals are then tasked with learning and exploring precise brewing techniques, bringing out the best flavours of the coffee. Single-origin coffees, which highlight unique attributes of beans from specific regions, have especially grown in popularity as of late.

In between old-school coffee and high-end specialty coffee lies value-focused Malaysian branded coftfee such as Zus Coffee, Bask Bear and Gigi Coffee, which make Arabica coffee more accessible than ever before. World Coffee Portal data shows that Malaysian-branded coffee grew a whopping 28 per cent over last year. 'This reflects a growing middle class, brought about by economic growth, whose higher spending power and penchant for premium products are fuelling the rise of specialty coffee.