Last Friday, we dropped by the first ever Cafe Culture 2019 in Marina Bay Sands to visit one of our partner roasters, ST ALi and of course, we checked out a few other participating roasters as well. Standing in line at 10am right before the doors open basically described how serious or excited we felt about the event and walking into the hall was like walking into a coffee paradise. The collective effects of having ambient music, beautiful decor, the sound of espresso machines and the smell of food was just positively overwhelming.
The first booth we visited was Coffee Collective, the Copenhagen-based coffee roastery who welcomed us with light-roasted coffees and delicious ice cream. It was definitely a delight to have the barista team of Coffee Collective fly in all the way from Denmark and they even have a coffee chat corner if you would like to know more about their coffees. Just like many of their cafes back in Denmark, their booth has a subtle Scandinavian aesthetic paired with a “Hygge” vibe leaving many of their customers feel comfortable.
Next stop, we head over to ST ALi to say hello. Kirk, the head barista and Shinsaku, Ambassador of ST ALi were both present and demonstrated ST ALi’s spirit in coffee making. We tried their Nicaragua Java as long black and it was amazing. Known for their edginess and larger than life vision, ST ALi was definitely hard to miss at the show.
We then stopped by Roots from Bangkok to try their locally farmed coffees. As a pioneer of specialty coffee in Thailand, Roots’ vision is to share and spread awareness on Thai farmed coffees. We were fortunate to also participate in their public cupping session. Head roaster of Roots, Korn, kick-started the session by explaining the origins of each coffee and how it was curated for Roots.
The last roaster we visited was Switch Coffee from the Meguro precinct of Tokyo. Founded by Masahiro Onishi back in 2013, he was a barista for 6 years before starting his own roastery which inspired by his peers based out of Australia. Switch coffee offered a wide range of coffees at Cafe Culture and their Santa Rosa, Pacamara from El Salvador was to die for. Each coffee was carefully brewed and served with Japanese hospitality as if you live right around the corner.
Overall, we enjoyed our time at Cafe Culture 2019. From croissants to Eggs Benedicts, the event was definitely appealing to cafe hoppers and coffee enthusiasts alike.