JUST a short walking distance away from the Taman Bahagia LRT station, Drift Coffee, a neighbourhood coffee spot, has been ‘brewing’ premium single-origin coffee since last May.
Tucked away in a row of bustling shophouse on a busy street at Jalan SS2/3 near a traffic signal in Petaling Jaya, the coffee house (next to a paint shop) has been attracting customers, both young and old, with aromatic coffee, delicious food, and pastries.
Clean, calm, and quiet
Despite the loud noise outside, once you step into the coffee place, you will experience an entirely different ambiance altogether.
The elegant sage green with gray undertone wall paint colour in the spacious cafe provide calmness, completely in contrast to the busy world outside. It is the perfect spot to eat or relax before booking an e-hailing car to head home after work.
The owners, Ng Jia Jun, 36, a project manager at a construction company, and his sister, Ng Pei Ying, 35, an accountant, opened Drift Coffee on May 1, 2020, with the purpose of promoting and serving premium single-origin coffees.
Thus, the brother and sister team picked the minimalist interior design, known as “Japandi” – a combination of Japanese and Scandinavian style – to provide a peace, quiet and free-flowing space for their customers to enjoy a good cup of coffee.
“We did not want to clutter the place with tables and chairs,” said Jia Jun, simply known as Jun, the cafe’s barista.
“We did not want a place specifically to take Instagram pictures with a lot of plants or a feature wall. Instead, we wanted to focus on providing an experience of tasting premium coffee. Hence the clean design,” explained Pei Ying.
The two were inspired to set up the cafe as the siblings loved to sip coffee, first thing in the morning.
Throughout the years, they have explored and experienced a variety taste of coffee beans while studying and travelling to countries like Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and others.
Jun graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Marketing in Michigan, USA (in 2009) and Pei Ying pursued her Bachelor of Commerce in Melbourne, Australia (in 2008), and it was then, the two were exposed to high quality coffees.
They started to research and explore the many varieties in the market. “Since then, we have travelled to many countries and when we came back, we could not find a decent cup of coffee,” said Pei Ying.
“Although we can find coffee anywhere, from a mamak restaurant to a kopitiam, the fragrance of a distinguishable specialty coffee with high quality coffee beans was lacking in the local coffee scene,” said Pei Ying.
The passionate coffee lovers, who describe themselves as coffee connoisseurs, left their jobs to bring great quality coffee to the people of Petaling Jaya, where a mature community lives, and to share their finest beans from farms around the world.
From coffee lovers to connoisseurs
“Here, at Drift Coffee, we promote specialty coffee. We emphasise on good quality beans in a cup,” she said. Specialty coffee has the purest taste, unique characteristics and more pronounced fruity flavours.
They serve truly excellent specialty coffees like their signature Arabica coffees using grade A coffee beans from different regions like Panama, Brazil, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Columbia, and South Africa, instead of commercially available blended coffees.
“We are trying to educate our customers about single origin coffees. We want them to taste the bean profile in our coffee,” said Pei Ying.
Drift specialises in hand-drip (pour over) coffee techniques, which is hand-poured over a wavy filter. This coffee crafting method accentuates the authentic flavours of the coffee bean.
Coffee lovers or connoisseurs with an acquired taste for premium coffee beans love the distinctive characters and taste profiles extracted through this technique.
The signature hand drip coffee is purely coffee without mixing with milk or sugar, which can hamper the taste.
“We serve a good cup of experience for people who can tell the differences in taste profile. It’s like wine. It’s about lifestyle, attitude, and enjoying an experience,” said Pei Yin.
(In fact, the company’s logo is the symbol of coffee dripper)
Another signature coffee is the Single Origin Dirty Latte, which is an expresso shot poured in a cold milk and served in a chilled cup.
Besides this, they also serve flat coffee and espresso shots, as well.
A delight in the coffee
At times, some regular customers get a ‘different taste’ in their coffees.
The owners will bring seasonal coffee beans from overseas and sometimes rotate the single origin coffee beans to add a ‘little surprise’ to the taste buds.
The lucky customer will get familiar coffees like long black, latte, cappucino, and flat-white made with different coffee beans on different days in the same week.
The siblings also aim to change the perception that cafes are a place for “young people only”, as some older generations, including those in their family, feel that way.
To encourage more older people to visit their cafe, they offer a special price of RM6 for Expresso – which is normally priced at RM10 – for senior citizens.
In fact, while we we there, we witnessed an elderly man, a regular customer, buying his regular dose of black coffee at the ‘discounted’ special price.
Among their best coffees are: Single Origin Matcha, Single Origin Spanish Latte, Single Origin Okinawa Black Latte, Single Origin Sea Salt Caramel Macchiato, Cold Brew Black and Cold Brew White, and Single Origin Belgium Chocolate.
A premium taste
Not only do they serve excellent coffees, but they also serve fresh meals with quality ingredients like premium eggs and the much healthier free-range chicken in their mouth-watering menu.
Chef Leonard Ong makes his own herb-flavoured gourmet sausages, fresh-tasting home-made sauces and dips like black pepper and lemon aioli dips.
The food on the menu was selected based on the dishes that they enjoyed during their many travels abroad.
They worked together with Chef Leonard, who has experience working in a local hotel, added his own twist to their amazing Western cuisines.
The signature dish is the Drift Big Breakfast, an European-style breakfast, which is a must-try.
Chef-made-potatoes or roasties are crispy, alongside juicy and tender chicken Spanish sausages (in-house), premium eggs on sourdough toasties, fresh garden salad, and fresh and smoky mushrooms and juicy cherry tomatoes.
The dish is delicious
Apart from this, Basil Pesto Pasta with fresh basil leaves, pine nuts and parmesan cheese has a blended pesto sauce that is thick and slightly creamy but a flavourful green (which I personally loved).
The best-sellers include Grilled Chicken Chop, where crisp free-range chicken is perfectly grilled and served with their in-house black pepper dip. The juicy and tender chicken is paired with a fresh garden salad.
Another best-seller is the Golden Crisp Fish Steak with crispy fries and Lemon Aioli Dip. The golden crust is crispy, while the meat is moist. The Lemon Aioli, made with an herb and black pepper dip, is rich in flavour and complements the main dish.
Apart from the pork-free restaurant-standard dishes, Pei Ying makes her own delightful home-made pastries using premium ingredients, which complements the simply great coffees.
Apart from their signature-cake, the alcohol-infused authentic recipe Tiramisu, Pei Ying whips up Basque burnt cheesecake, gluten-free chocolate cake and trendy pastry like Canele (using copper moulds) and croissants like Nutella Almond Croissant.
Sharing how they arrived at the name of the cafe – ‘drift’ – Pei Ying said the word came from the phrase: “Do you catch my drift?”
At the same time, Jun, a car enthusiast, said the particular junction in front of the cafe was known for car stunts like drifting some 20 years ago.
Hence, the inspiration for the name – Drift Coffee.
