I attended the Food and Hotel Exhibition at the KL Convention Centre last week.
Did not manage to get much photos. I was too engrossed with all the Coffee Specialist Exhibitors.

All the major coffee suppliers and distributors were there like Bon Cafe, Coffex, Dankoff, ETC Concept, Simplex Maju and some smaller players too. Most of them brought in the “heavy artillery”, meaning… high quality fresh roasted coffee and good barista.

In Malaysia (if you don’t already know), great coffee virtually don’t exist because of the lack of high quality fresh roasted coffee and good barista.

I have never had so many nice coffee in my life, apart from making them myself.

Unfortunately, some exhibitors came less than prepare. Or maybe they don’t expect the competition to be so fierce. I actually tried a few espresso from some “pathetic” companies offering horrible, under-extracted watery espresso. There’s a company promoting their “Elephant Beans”. Yes, the beans are BIG and tasted equally horrible.

Ok, on with the good stuff.

My first espresso, from Boncafe. Their baristas came from Singapore. What do you know? Not bad. But when I asked him how fresh is the beans, he gave me a puzzled look and fiddled with some pack coffee from the back. The pack says 3 months old. Actually the beans were quite fresh (I assume), because those on display in the front all shown to be about 2 weeks from roasting date.

BonCafe. They brought in their best for the show. Don’t expect fresh roasted coffee if you are trying to buy in a supermarket.

Next stop. Coffex.
Brought their barista from Australia. Again, I asked the barista about the freshness of his coffee. Again, not sure. Went fiddled with the coffee bag and told me in a very accented Australian English, 8 days. Had an espresso. Hey, even better than Boncafe. More pronounced and more complex. Tasted fine. I only wish that whenever I come across any food outlet that serves Coffex Coffee in the future will taste as good.

ETC for Home Machine.
Like I always mentioned, you want great coffee, do it yourselves. Here are the beautiful girls selling beautiful home machines.

Jade and Tracy

And here are the hardwares.

Gaggia Espresso Machines. The only brand worth your time currently that is available in the market that is accessible to consumers. Forget about those machine you often seen in Isetan, Metrojaya or Harvey Norman types of retailer. Those are toys in comparison.

I hope more suppliers will bring in other serious home espresso machines like Rancilio Silvia. Some supplier does offer to import specifically for you but the cost is really high. For now, if you are looking for home machines, ETC Concept is the place to go. They are located at the Curve.

Now.. my favourite:-

DanKoff Coffee Specialist

Their beans are roasted in Singapore. Their associates from Highlander Coffee brought over some high quality fresh roasted blend. Only 2 days from roasting. Makes excellent espresso and just as good for cappuccinos.

The espresso is the best I’ve tried. Smooth, pleasant acidity, detected some fruitiness, good body and a nice aftertaste.

Here is Boyd, the barista pulling a shot.

Here you see Jeffrey(left) and Phil(Center) from Highlander Coffee. These guys are passionate about coffee.

Here is Danny of DanKoff chating with some customer.

Thanks to Highlander Coffee (Phil, Cedric and Jeffrey) for bringing me some excellent fresh roasted coffee.

If you want to store coffee properly, put it in a vacuumed container and pump the air out. Then keep them in a cool, dark and dry place. You can store them for a week, at most 2. roasted coffee beans by they nature, continues to deteriorate. You cannot really stop that process. Regardless of how they are packed, you don’t call them fresh after 2 weeks.

HOME
Can’t wait to test them myself.

Tasted just as good. Well nothing can compare to high quality fresh roasted beans.
My poor attempt of a latte art on my cappuccino. Not very presentable but still tasted fine.

Can’t wait for the exhibition in 2 years time.

P.S: Need contact, reference and recommendations? Drop me a line or two.