"This is a workshop more than a cafe", said Linda in a short introduction of the cafe. She was roasting coffee beans beside the door when I first stepped into the cafe.
August Drip Coffee (八月咖啡工作室) is a workshop, or a "roastery", where it roasts a wide range of imported coffee beans in-cafe. It is also a great cafe for coffee-lovers to interact, exchange coffee and brewing knowledge, and enjoy wonderful pour-over coffees and special coffees. They hold workshops for latte arts, coffee cupping, and other coffee-related sharing sessions as well.
Note: Cupping sessions for newly acquired coffee beans are held on the 1st of every month — do register if interested, they are usually full-house when having such workshops.
August Drip Coffee is located right beside Restoran Hao Bi (好比鸭王), a restaurant for herbal roasted duck and other roasted delights, in Taman Century, near KSL City Mall. The cosy cafe started in August 2019 and is celebrating its 5th anniversary in August 2024 — a promotion is ongoing till 31 August 2024 (read on...).
A coffee roasting machine sits in one corner of the cafe with sacks of green coffee beans from different regions or established farms in the coffee belt. The workshop-cafe's main role is to roast the different types of specialty coffee beans to bring out their best taste profiles. I like the aroma that filled the cafe when they are roasting the beans — so lucky it was on my first visit and I was hooked.
They imported over 70 types of coffee beans from over the world, including via auctions for exclusive coffee beans from famous farms. Having a cup of pour-over coffee at the cafe is a great way to try the different flavours before buying the coffee beans to self-brew at home.
On the bar counter are some of their freshly roasted coffee beans for pour-overs. Light roasted beans are mostly fruity in nature. Medium and darker roasted beans are fuller body, mildly acidic and with stronger aromas. The lady barista, named Sherly, hand-brewed roasted coffee ground for customers. There are various types of coffee drippers, including V60, for brewing different types of coffee beans to bring out the best taste profiles.
The first pour-over coffee I had on my first visit to August Drip Coffee was the Ethiopia Sidamo, with a homemade Oreo cheesecake that I picked from the glass shelf. Before brewing the coffee, Sherly ground the coffee beans and let me had a whiff of its peachy aroma. Few minutes later, the coffee was served. It had a light reddish colour to it.
I enjoyed the fruity coffee — breathing in the aroma before taking each sip — that was neither too acidic nor bitter and no sugar needed. The Oreocheese cake was made with soft and creamy cheese. It was really good to go with coffee.
The cakes are baked by Sherly. She makes really nice cakes and I tried different ones on each visit.
Aside from cakes and other light bites served at the cafe, food and snacks from nearby restaurants can be ordered and delivered to the cafe for consumption with coffee (payment to be made separately).
On my second visit, I tried the Yunnan (Red Wine in the Sun) coffee beans that were naturally sun-dried and treated in used red wine barrels.
To experience different flavours (varying degrees of acidity and red-wine aroma) of the Yunnan coffee beans at different temperatures, I was served another glass with a piece of ice to cool the just-brewed hot coffee. It was really interesting — not to mention that I was drinking (red wine) coffee as though it was whiskey. I have loved the red-winey Yunnan coffee ever since and bought it several times for self-brewing.
Apart from pour-over specialty coffees, August cafe has its own blend of coffee beans in drip sachets and their cappuccino is rich and creamy with a pleasant aroma from specially self-roasted coffee beans. They also serve Italian coffee, special coffee, tea and juice.
I visit the cafe very often to try more of their hand-brew coffees, to gain more knowledge about the coffee beans and learning how to brew them. August Drip Coffee is a great starting place for beginners in self-brew coffee — I started brewing my own coffee after 4 visits to August Cafe. Brewing kits are available for sales too.
The pour-overs that I have tried at August cafe are mostly light roasted to taste their bright flavours (closer to original) and include Ethiopia Sidamo, Kenya Kiriniaga, Yunnan Red Wine in the Sun, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, Colombia Huila, etc. But I will get both light- and medium-roasted beans to brew at home. Some of my purchases include the Ethiopia Sidamo, Yunnan Red Wine in the Sun, Tanzania Kilimanjaro AAA, Papua New Guinea Kuta and Kimel beans, etc — one or two different beans each time. Note that availability of certain coffee beans may be seasonal.
I also participated in the cafe's membership scheme to enjoy discounts on expenses at the cafe. They usually have special promotions for members in the month of August during their anniversary.
Don't miss out August Drip Coffee if you are a coffee-lover and enjoy savings on your coffees and freshly roasted coffee beans. For those who have never try pour-over coffee before, experience it at the cafe with lovely friends — they don't like to be called "staff" — will be more than happy to share what they know.
Visit the cafe or order their roasted coffee beans online:
Malaysia: shopee.com.my/augustdripcoffee
Singapore: shopee.sg/jonpeh1990
Address:
2, Jalan Kancil, Taman Century, 80250 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10am to 6pm | Daily
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take myBAS F100 to KSL City Mall and alight at Holiday Plaza. Read JB Bus Guide: Getting to KSL City Mall / Holiday Plaza in Johor Bahru.
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