The freshly-made brews are meant to showcase the stall’s main product, which is coffee beans. Fronting the shop is adorable auntie Ann Tan, 61, who first charmed us with her bubbly personality when we came across her stall.: “My mum was a supermarket promoter, but she stopped working during the Covid-19 pandemic ’cos her job [was put on hold]. So I thought of setting up a stall to keep her occupied.
Marx reckons that his bean pricing is around 30 to 60 per cent lower than cafes. “200g of single origin arabica beans would be $15 to $20, but for us it’s $10 to $12. We don’t have seats and we are a small market stall. We can offer better value to our customers from the overheads we save,” he explains.
Besides beans, he also sells coffee-brewing accessories like drip kettles, filters and oat milk, as well as old-school wafers and biscuits for customers to enjoy with coffee. “We supply beans to some offices and cafes too,” shares Marx. Robusta beans are cheaper than their arabica counterparts, as they are bitter and less nuanced in taste. According to Marx, some robusta beans are fried with caramelised sugar to preserve them for longer storage. “That’s why there’s a ‘gao’ taste when you drink Nanyang-style coffee,” he says.