Pulp by Papa Palheta, Kuala Lumpur

Coffee wears many faces.

When is a café not a café? Singaporean-based coffee company Papa Palheta is trying to solve this riddle by doing it all – sourcing and roasting beans; serving coffee in its own outlets; selling espresso machines and brewing equipment; conducting coffee appreciation classes and workshops; and even running an online coffee subscription service.

Founder Leon Foo, 31, started the company as a coffee-roasting and wholesale business from the back of a little shophouse in Bukit Timah in 2009. Today the brand also includes a trio of cafés – Loysel’s Toy and Chye Seng Huat Hardware in Singapore, and most recently Pulp in Bangsar.

The former banker says, “I’ve always wanted to create a Singaporean-Malaysian brand but it was a matter of timing. The Singaporean market was ready first so we started there. For Pulp, our Kuala Lumpur entry, I wanted to collaborate with local partners hence we have Bangsar-based Art Printing Works as our landlord.”

The avid locavore reasons that as Singapore is only four hours away from Kuala Lumpur by land, the two cities are still close enough for Papa Palheta’s coffee to be considered local. He says, “What we are trying to do is build our brand identity within this stretch of the peninsula. Roasted coffee does not travel well so we’re keeping operations within these two countries.”

Pulp is housed on the grounds of a Bangsar paper mill. Unlike their earlier cafés where raw, almost-bare furnishings reigned, here almost every surface is finished; expect of a lot of laminated wood and glass. A very big portion of the space is dedicated to the back-of-house that includes the cupping room, the C-Platform training area, the warehouse to store the beans and an office upstairs. By contrast, the café portion is quite small.

Foo explains, “We deliberately did this so that we come across as a support centre. If you notice, the espresso and brew bars are designed in such a way so they can be rotated to showcase our equipment and the openness of how we do things. We are trying to create that curiosity of ‘Hey, they are cupping coffee inside. Maybe I should go have a look since I’m interested?’”

For coffee enthusiasts, the C-Platform is a space where they can play with various coffee paraphernalia and machines with the guidance of a professional, whether it’s the dedicated staff on hand to answer their every query or by attending small group classes.

說起Papa Palheta這個名字，城中的朋友也許會有點陌生。
不過如果對於新加坡的咖啡迷們，卻是再也熟悉不過的名字了。
因為它是新加坡一家著名的咖啡商；
除了自家採購、烘焙豆子外，還供應豆子予其他咖啡館，
同時也販賣咖啡機和相關器材及提供咖啡課程和講習班。
而旗下的再成發五金（Chye Seng Huat Hardware）和Loysel’s Toy更是星星國的人氣咖啡館。
近來巴生谷越見興盛和蓬勃的咖啡業，也吸引了這家咖啡商的目光，
進而於今年三月，在Bangsar的一家造紙廠內開了一家取名為Pulp的咖啡館。
再成發五金保留了舊店屋的風貌，裝置上結合復古與現代化兩種元素，
而Loysel’s Toy則給人一種鄰里而親切感覺；
相比之下Pulp的裝潢則來得簡潔、現代化和開放些，
尤其是那可旋轉的咖啡臺，
讓你可以更清楚的看到咖啡師在製作咖啡的過程，我還蠻喜歡的。

和前兩家咖啡館一樣，除了意大利式咖啡，Pulp也提供了手沖單品的選擇。
對於不同烘焙程度的單品豆子，
咖啡師會選用不同的沖泡法來製作，這樣更能帶出他們所想呈現的風味。
我們試了衣索比亞Suke Quto的豆子。
清新的口感、檸檬酸、濃郁的花果香氣，是我們喜歡的類型。
而奶泡順滑可口的卡布奇諾也很不錯，
加上親切的咖啡師和工作人員，我們會一再光顧，一點都不意外。