Illustration by Hanna@CTI
Dickens once wrote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This might be the best description for coffee market in Malaysia. I’ve visited 12 local cafes in 7days, most are in Selangor. Here, “Hippies”, recognized in the eyes of older generation, are dominating the emerging specialty coffee market. They are young, energetic and adventurous. They are promising to grow up very quickly but actually being constrained by the slow growth of coffee market. For local people, the whole specialty coffee market is like going down the Rabbit hole in Wonderland to explore.
Diversified Coffee Culture
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country. Therefore, the local coffee market is influenced by diversified culture, for example their religions are Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam; later immigrants from Singapore and Chinese immigrants from Hainan brought their culture into the mix, as well as the national culture from Malaysia and India. They all made a profound impact on local coffee market development. In Malaysia, you can see specialty coffee just on the streets. You can also find coffee in supermarkets or convenient stores. Even, in some area like China Town or Little India, you could taste a local coffee named Kopi. Kopi, also called Kopitiam, which means “coffee shop” in Hokkien, is a kind of Hainan Coffee. It is also one of the first waves in coffee revolution in Malaysia. The beans are dark-roasted and put together with margarine and sugar. After ground and brewed, it looks just like black coffee, but it has a strong bitter taste.
Starbucks is the leader
Just like in China, the concept of specialty coffee was introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s by the development of chained coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Even though the price increased suddenly from 1-2 MYR (0.24-0.49 USD) per cup for daily consumption to 10 MYR (2.43 USD), it did not affect the Malaysians’ loves for cafés as the “Third Place”. Since its first coffee store was open in Kuala Lumpur in December 1998, Starbucks has opened 235 stores in Malaysia by January 2017, accounting for 44% of coffee market share. Nowadays, big coffee shop chains like Starbucks remain to be the first choice for consumers, leading a constant growth of local coffee market.
New Vanes of the Market
In the following decade, Malaysia experienced the third wave of specialty coffee. European and American style specialty coffee has incredibly influenced the Southeast Asian coffee market. Black coffee with no sugar, no milk, no syrup and even no cream, and the stories behind coffee beans attract coffee drinkers’ to know everything about coffee. Just like going down the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland, everything seems new and people can’t wait to explore. In the meanwhile, new industry chain was established, to make a good coffee, develop coffee farming, green-bean buying, roasting and baristas’ service, for that all the professionals need to work together. Young roasters and green bean buyers start to go directly to the coffee bean origin in order to select high quality green beans to roast later. In Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, there are several excellent coffee-roasters, who not only getting more and more popular at home but also getting noticed in international competitions. Thanks to the 2015 World Barista Championship, Malaysia baristas finally got the chance to perform on the international stage. This helped to promote the development of local specialty coffee industry.
Bargaining Draws the Specialty Coffee Market Back
According to the 2016 Coffee Price Index report by research company Service Partner One, a Grande Latte from Starbucks was sold for $3.35 (22.62 RMB) per cup, a medium cappuccino from an independent coffee shop was $3.13 (21.14 RMB), but a cup of coffee in an office (instant/capsule) was at $0.11 (0.74 RMB). In Kuala Lumpur independent coffee shop, the average unit price of an espresso/Americano is 8 MYR (12.58 RMB), specialty brewed coffee selling price starts from 16 MYR (25.17 RMB). Being in between deeply ingrained traditional coffee Kopi (average unit price at 2 MYR, equal to 3.15 RMB) and huge instant coffee market, the level of food and beverage consumption per capita is not high (generally a weekday meal costs from 6-7 MYR to 20-30 MYR maximum) and a big choice of cheap snacks, the specialty coffee market in Kuala Lumpur is struggling to survive. In local specialty coffee market, profits have been squeezed to a very low level and it is very rare to see sky-high priced Geisha or high-end Blue Mountain coffee. It’s more popular among young people and its sustainable growth was driven by the food service and retail business. Take Yellow Brick Road at Batai Village as an example, this coffee shop is managed by 2 coffee champions, it is full of people almost every moment on weekends. The average number of specialty coffee cups produced per day during a weekend is 15, compared to 6 cups/day in the weekdays. Milk coffee and Americano is still the main products. Even under this condition, bigger part of Yellow Brick Road‘s revenue comes from food service part.
Even though the market is limited, local young professionals are trying their best to develop specialty coffee sector. This time, we will focus on 6 local specialty coffee shops, to share with you the charm of local coffee scene.
- Three Little Birds (Artisan Roastery)
Address: G.18, D7, Jalan Sentul, Sentul, Kuala Lumpur 51000
Business hours: Monday – Thursday 8:00-23:00;
Friday – Saturday: 8:00-24:00;
Sunday: 9:00-22:00
Key words: 1st specialty coffee and roaster brand in Malaysia
- Cream by The Roasting Things
Address: A-G-01, Prima Avenue, The Tube Jalan PJU 1/39, Dataran Prima 47301, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Business hours: Monday – Friday: 9:00-18:00;
Saturday: 10:00-18:00;
Sunday: off
Key words: Self-Roasted coffee, co-working space
- Brew&Bread
Address: 10, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla M 31/M, Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam, Selangor 40460
Business hours: Every Day 8:00-19:00, except Thursday.
Key words: Community store, Self-Roasted
- Yellow Brick Road
Address: 8-7, Jalan Batai, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: Monday – Sunday 9:00-22:00
Key words: Two World Coffee Competition Champions
- Littlepeople Coffee
Address: G-01, Avatar Residences, 162 Jalan Klang Lama, 58200 Kuala Lumpur
Business hours: Wednesday: 10:00-18:30;
Thursday – Monday: 10:00-23:00;
Tuesday: 0ff
Key words: Brightening environment, Handmade pasta, Tea
- One Half Coffee
Address: 9, Jalan SS 21/37, Damansara Utama 47400, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Business hours: Monday – Sunday: 8:00 – 23:00
Key words: 2016 Malaysia Barista Champion, Internet Celebrity Baozi
To read the full story with detailed introduction of each coffee shop, please visit the digital magazine of issue 62.
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