Mother and son sell coffee beans and S$2.90 arabica espresso at hip wet market stall

Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre is home to many beloved hawker stalls, like famed roast meat eatery Foong Kee’s comeback shop, $1 tong shui joint Xi Le Ting and the excellent Hammee’s Burgers.

The wet market just below the hawker centre is equally interesting, with a small handful of stalls selling produce like eggs, meat, vegetables… and hipster coffee beans.

Yep, standing out among the gritty no-frills units is Coffee Together Co., which has fancier-than-usual decorations like a traditional Chinese signboard, faux brick wallpaper and a large light-up coffee portafilter logo on the wall.

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Going closer, what also caught our eye is an automatic coffee-making machine and a small menu advertising “Arabica Coffee” with three hot options: Espresso ($2.90), Long Black ($3.90) and Flat White with oat milk ($4.90).

Opened by a millennial for his mum

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.

Her son Marx Lee, 32, had set up Coffee Together Co. in September 2021. Marx tells 8days.sg: “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.”

He still has a day job “in business development at a building materials trading company”, but his family has experience in selling coffee.

“My grandfather had a coffeeshop at Stirling Road in Queenstown, but when he passed away my father and uncle decided to close it. When they told me the stories of how he roasted beans and all, I wished that we could have continued his business,” recalls Marx, who invested around $20,000 to open a simple wet market stall.

He points out that some coffee drinkers buy beans from supermarkets and cafes. “But supermarket beans are usually a few months old. Cafe beans are fresh and good, but one bag can cost over $20 ’cos cafes have high overheads,” he says.

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.

Other than the physical stall, Coffee Together Co. also has an online Shopee store. Marx is in the midst of setting up a TikTok shop for his coffee beans, though he rules out opening a cafe due to the “high costs.”

Coffee beans for home brewers

As people could not visit cafes during the height of the pandemic, Marx initially spotted “an opportunity in selling beans directly to consumers.”

He learnt how to sell coffee beans by researching online, attending trade fairs and talking to friends who are in the industry. His beans currently come from several suppliers, and the stall’s customer base includes expats from the nearby Holland area.

Marx shares: “We started off as an experiential shop for home brewers. There were a lot of them ’cos they couldn’t go out to enjoy their coffees. But some people don’t know where to start when it comes to buying beans, so I hope my business can help them.

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.

The coffee-buying process here is very chill; if you need recommendations, just have a chat with Marx’s friendly mum. There are also samples displayed in airtight containers at the storefront, and customers are welcome to smell the beans to find something they like.

The stall stocks arabica beans from Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Sumatra ($5 to $5.50 for 100g). These beans go into higher-priced cafe cuppas, as the coffea arabica plant is trickier to grow and yields beans that are floral and fruity in flavour when roasted.

There are also four types of ‘Nanyang Blend’ robusta beans (from $1.50 to $3 per 100g) sold here, which are typically used to make kopi at hawker centres, coffeeshops and food courts. You can also top up to create your own customised Nanyang blend with various other arabica beans.

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’ (thick) taste when you drink Nanyang-style coffee,” he says.

You can buy the beans whole, or have it grinded into coffee powder via an over 50 years old retro grinder (pictured above) that Marx loaned from a supplier.

Learning a new skill in her 60s

Ann has mastered bean profiles and how to grind and pack coffee powder. And how to operate the coffee machine, albeit very hesitatingly (so be patient if you order a cuppa from her). “It was a knowledge gap, but my mum is young and can learn lah,” quips Marx, as Ann trills: “It has been two years. If I never learn anything, I will be fired!”

The learning process was not exactly smooth. “My mum and I had our share of conflicts lah. Like I’ll say ‘this is so simple’ and she’s like, ‘no!’” Marx laughs.

Ann was initially overwhelmed when her son hauled in an automatic brewing machine to offer coffee as an “add-on”, figuring that the automated process would make things easier for her.

Marx recalls: “When I first brought it up to my mum, she was like [mimicks her protests]. When she went on holiday for a month, I was running the stall and brought in a machine and calibrated it down to the kind of mineral water used for the coffee.”

He had considered uninstalling his little experiment after his mum returned from her overseas trip. “But she said, ‘Aiyah, why you take away? Customers want it!’” he chortles.

Ann pipes up merrily: “There was just so much to learn right after I came back from my holiday. I was so confused!”

Espresso, $2.90

The brewed coffee menu here is based on just one type of bean, so as not to confuse Ann when she operates the coffee machine. Marx usually offers Brazilian Santos beans, reasoning that it yields cuppas that are “chocolatey, buttery and low on acidity”, which would suit most people’s palates.

The espresso here is fragrant, smooth and nutty with a light layer of crema (the caramel-coloured foam on top of the coffee that enhances its flavour), though we find this too strong for our liking.

We prefer this Brazilian bean in a pourover coffee, where we can better appreciate its delicate notes. Marx also sells fuss-free reusable filters from Taiwanese brand Cloud Bean Tech ($12 a pack) that you can just pop over a cup to make pourover coffee.

Flat White, $4.90

Flat white traditionally has less milk than a latte, and a very thin layer of steamed milk foam. Coffee Together Co. offers only oat milk, as it’s lactose tolerance-friendly. We find the raw-tasting oat milk flavour overwhelming here with too much foam, drowning out the coffee’s taste.

Long Black, $3.90 (8 Days Pick!)

While there are no seats at the stall, customers can savour their freshly-brewed coffee on the spot at a small standing table that Marx has set up beside his shop. If you just want a cup of coffee after lunch, the Long Black here is especially enjoyable.

It is made by pouring espresso over hot water, which preserves the layer of crema. The water also lets us taste the bean’s flavours better, compared to the more intense espresso. “We are working on a cold brew next,” adds Marx.

Coffee Together Co. is at #01-05, Commonwealth Crescent Market, S149644. Open Tues-Thu, Sat & Sun, 8.30am-2pm. Shopee store here. www.facebook.com/CoffeeTogetherCo

Photos: Dillon Tan

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