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Culture
Story and Photos by Coffee t&i Malaysia

Malaysia, A growing coffee nation.

At the helm of certain political unease and currency fluctuations, it is not suprising for fellow Malaysians to claim that
the industry has been challenged in the past year with the introduction of the Goods & Services tax; as well as the need to increase
prices for not only equipments, but for other aspects of the business as well. As a 2nd largest commodity in the world, it is no
surprise that the coffee business here in Malaysia is a booming one, but relatively a very young one as well.
Under all the circumstances that challenged the industry for 2016, there have been positive ones as well. With government
implementations to ease import & export permits, there are hopefuls for better, greater coffee here in Malaysia.
Here at Coffee T&I, we felt the need to introduce you to this growing industry in Malaysia and explain further on how it
all started, the market trends of Malaysia and more.

History of Malaysian Coffee

Iced “Kopi-O”Art Mural by Ernest Zacharevic in Ipoh, Malaysia Traditional Coffee in Malaysia

When one speaks about coffee in Malaysia, it is often Traditional Coffee & Roasting
referred or translated back to how good a cup of traditionally
roasted coffee could taste such as the infamous cup of Ipoh White
Coffee, or just your ordinary cup of “Kopi-O” which is basically just
a cup of black coffee filtered through a process of using a sock or
cloth filter.
Coffee has always been grown in Malaysia, however the
quantity grown has never been enough to cater to the average
consumption of the coffee drinkers here in Malaysia. There are
two specieses that are commonly found in Malaysian farms, which
is Robusta and Liberica.
Malaysia traditonally thrived on having coffee served at
your local kopi-tiams (Traditional Coffee Shops), Mamak’s (Indian
Malay Coffee Shops) and such. At these shops, sales of coffee could
even exceed your average specialty café’s in terms of daily number
of cups served. The consumption of coffee can be considered rela-
tively moderate in the recent years, considering the large number of
these kopi-tiams, mamaks, franchises and also including the rising
number of specialty café’s in Malaysia Liberica Cherries (Photo Credits : Jean Se)
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