We started Blaq because we could not find the coffee we wanted to drink.
Organic specialty coffee. Single origin. Tested for mycotoxins. Roasted in-house in Kuala Lumpur, in a small room behind a plain door.
This page is the long way of saying that.
We read labels. For oats. For olive oil. For everything we put in our body.
It seemed strange that the drink we reached for first each morning had the thinnest labelling of all. No mycotoxin testing. No traceability to one farm. Claims on the front of the bag that the back never substantiated.
So we stopped buying coffee. And then we started making it.
Every batch tested for ochratoxin A and aflatoxins. Single origin. One farm, one lot, one harvest. The roast date printed on every bag.
We decide as though we were the ones drinking the coffee. Because we are.
The long version is on Our Standard.
Eight origins at launch. Two in Ethiopia. One in Peru. Two in Colombia. One in Panama. Two in Malaysia. Each a single farm, a single lot, a single harvest.
We buy directly where the relationship allows it. Where it does not, we buy through importers who share the paperwork. The chain from tree to bag should be readable, not a matter of trust.
Malaysian Liberica is the unusual one. Two estates. Two states. Uncommon in specialty catalogues. We carry it because it deserves carrying.
A small room in Cheras. Three stools at a bar.
We roast small batch, light to medium, never past second crack. We do not contract roast. We do not flavour beans. We do not nitrogen-flush stock. What leaves the roastery carries our name, and only our name.
We do not publish our name.
Not out of mystery. Out of quietness. A name on the bag only gets in the way of the coffee.
If you want to find us, find the showroom. The door is plain. A kettle is usually on.
An occasional note on origin, roast, and the work behind the bag. Sent rarely. Read slowly.
