Coffee Roasting in KL

[ellboss]

Hi,

I am very interested in learning to roast and hopefully in the future, start a small scale coffee roasting business in Malaysia.

I have tried to get in contact with roasters to see if they are willing to teach me the trade, but I am not having very much luck (there are only a handful of roasters here in KL, that I know of).

If anyone has any advice or tips on moving forward I would be greatly appreciative.

 

[ensoluna]

Elliot, since you are from Australia, and Melbourne being the capital of specialty coffee, it might be beneficial for you to lean how to roast in Melbourne.
of course it won't be free to learn, but at least, you will learn with the best.
I highly doubt that there are good coffee roasters in Malaysia. Malaysia has mostly tea culture, right? like China?

I heard that Chinese people in China drinks 3 cups of coffee per person... IN ONE YEAR. that is the average. and probably all 3 cups will be 3 in 1 instant coffee anyway.

 

[ellboss]

Yes, unfortunately the sweet teh tarik (tea) drink is very popular with the locals, in saying that the younger generation are definitely changing things and there are many coffee shops being established. I was going to see if there are any recommended roasters in neighbouring Asian countries (Singapore, HK, Indo) as I could easily get across there. I will be heading back home in December and will definitely be in contact with roasters back home. Would you recommend buying a home roaster and start experimenting at home?

 

[expat]

Ellboss, our story is similar to yours, just in Ireland. We found a great guy in America - where we were going to visit - that said he'd be happy for us to spend half a day at his shop seeing what was going on. He didn't teach us to roast necessarily but took the mystery out of the process. At the end of the day the big benefit was that we realized this was not rocket science and was something we could do. Well, something my wife, The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress could do. You don't want me roasting coffee, just drinking the finished product.

So we dove in, got a 10 kg roaster and went to town. Thankfully The Lovely & Talented Roast Mistress is a fantastic cook so is very in tune with cooking/roasting. Also she has the most amazing senses of smell and taste. So all that coupled together quickly had us roasting decent coffee and then in a short time really good coffee - as good as any other coffee we'd researched and categorized as above average (although back then the average was low). And now after 5 years of roasting I think we've got great coffee. (IMHO)

Possibly if you could just hook-up with a roaster that doesn't see you as a threat to his business he could help out, like we were helped. Additional there's lots of YouTube videos and I think Boot Coffee has a video course -- although this isn't a recommendation for that as I know not how good it is. You may find more information searching the forums.

If you've got enough money to not worry about throwing out a few roasts as you get your feet underneath you then you could do alright. And with the fact that coffee is an emerging thing in your country you could be catching the wave just right.

 

[ellboss]

That is a really refreshing story. I am glad to hear it is paying off. I wish you all of the success and thank you for the tips.

 

[ellboss]

I think I am going to invest in a Huky 500T. They seem to have a good reputation. I think this will give me some experience with roasting and then I can potentially purchase a larger roaster/ and space to rent when I have the outside demand.