Johor coffee culture has roughly three layers. All three layers exist together, giving Johor coffee culture richness and depth.
The first layer is Nanyang coffee, best exemplified by the popular old school Hainanese kopitiams like Kin Wah and Hua Mui. The second layer is the international brands like Starbucks. The third layer is the emerging local brands such as Just Want Café, Monsta Café and My Liberica, just to name a few.
In Johor, some of the local brands are even vertically integrated, meaning they have their own plantations, processing facilities and cafés. Examples are Sai Kee Kopi 434 and My Liberica.
My Liberica is the brainchild and vision of Jason who earned his agricultural degree from Taiwan National University. On returning to Johor, Jason begun turning part of the family's oil palm plantation into a Liberica coffee plantation.
All the coffees sold at My Liberica café come from their own plantation near Bukit Batu in Johor. The ripe Liberica berries are carefully hand picked.
My Liberica's café located in Taman Molek (Johor Bahru) is already a go-to place for the JB's trendy set.
Inside My Liberica café, it is very comfortable with many spaces where customers can enjoy their coffee and cakes quietly.
If you like to watch baristas in action and engage them in coffee talk, you might prefer to perch at the coffee bar.
There are all manners of coffee machines in My Liberica, with this La Marzocco espresso machine taking centre stage.
The La Marzocco machine delivers rich and full bodied espresso coffees with My Liberica's own coffee beans.
The siphon system is the method of choice for making coffee like kopi luwak or civet cat coffee. My Liberica's kopi luwak is made with beans recovered from the droppings of wild civet cats roaming free in My Liberica's vast plantation. (Note: Johor Kaki supports only authentic and ethically harvested civet cat coffee beans.)
The simple filter method is ideal for premium blends like Geisha.
The enthusiastic baristas at My Liberica pull latte art with flare and gusto.
Trendy cold dripped coffee heavily laced with concentrated caffeine is a heady brew. My Liberica is one of the finest coffee shops in Johor serving top quality coffee in a nice environment. Restaurant name: My Liberica Specialty Coffee Address: 73, Jalan Molek 3/10, Taman Molek, Johor Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7ZUXG GPS: 1.521567,103.784838 Hours: Monday to Thursday 12:00noon to 10:00pm. Friday to Sunday 9:30am to 11:30pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Date visited: 18 Nov 2013
Johor coffee culture has roughly three layers. All three layers exist together, giving Johor coffee culture richness and depth.
The first layer is Nanyang coffee, best exemplified by the popular old school Hainanese kopitiams like Kin Wah and Hua Mui. The second layer is the international brands like Starbucks. The third layer is the emerging local brands such as Just Want Café, Monsta Café and My Liberica, just to name a few.
In Johor, some of the local brands are even vertically integrated, meaning they have their own plantations, processing facilities and cafés. Examples are Sai Kee Kopi 434 and My Liberica.
My Liberica is the brainchild and vision of Jason who earned his agricultural degree from Taiwan National University. On returning to Johor, Jason begun turning part of the family's oil palm plantation into a Liberica coffee plantation.
All the coffees sold at My Liberica café come from their own plantation near Bukit Batu in Johor. The ripe Liberica berries are carefully hand picked.
My Liberica's café located in Taman Molek (Johor Bahru) is already a go-to place for the JB's trendy set.
Inside My Liberica café, it is very comfortable with many spaces where customers can enjoy their coffee and cakes quietly.
If you like to watch baristas in action and engage them in coffee talk, you might prefer to perch at the coffee bar.
There are all manners of coffee machines in My Liberica, with this La Marzocco espresso machine taking centre stage.
The La Marzocco machine delivers rich and full bodied espresso coffees with My Liberica's own coffee beans.
The siphon system is the method of choice for making coffee like kopi luwak or civet cat coffee. My Liberica's kopi luwak is made with beans recovered from the droppings of wild civet cats roaming free in My Liberica's vast plantation. (Note: Johor Kaki supports only authentic and ethically harvested civet cat coffee beans.)
The simple filter method is ideal for premium blends like Geisha.
The enthusiastic baristas at My Liberica pull latte art with flare and gusto.
Trendy cold dripped coffee heavily laced with concentrated caffeine is a heady brew. My Liberica is one of the finest coffee shops in Johor serving top quality coffee in a nice environment. Restaurant name: My Liberica Specialty Coffee Address: 73, Jalan Molek 3/10, Taman Molek, Johor Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7ZUXG GPS: 1.521567,103.784838 Hours: Monday to Thursday 12:00noon to 10:00pm. Friday to Sunday 9:30am to 11:30pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Today, I am happy to visit My Liberica's coffee plantation at the invitation of Jason, the owner. My Liberica's plantation near Bukit Batu in Johor has tens of acres of Liberica coffee bushes.
Jason, who is passionate about coffee, showed us around his Liberica plantation which included a thrilling bouncy ride on his 4-wheel drive station wagon.
We were lucky to visit during the harvesting season. These are reddish coloured Liberica coffee berries (the size of grapes) ripe for harvesting.
Workers hand pick the ripe coffee berries - very hard work under the scorching hot sun.
Credit: Wikipedia
Also coveting the coffee berries are the Palm Civet Cats that live free in the plantation among the oil palms and coffee bushes. Perhaps better than humans, civet cats know how to cherry pick the best berries.
Inside the coffee berry are two seeds wrapped in a thin layer of juicy sweet tasting flesh. Civet cats love the flesh wrapping the coffee seeds.
Sometimes, civet cats get to the coffee berry before the pickers. This coffee berry had it's seeds eaten by a civet cat.
After swallowing the coffee berries, the cat digests the flesh and pass out the coffee seeds with the excrement. Civet cat droppings are found in random places, littered around My Liberica's sprawling coffee plantation.
At the My Liberica plantation, workers search for and collect this civet cat excrement. One can easily appreciate that the work is tedious and time consuming. Supply is also limited.
(In some other places, captive civet cats held in small wire cages are force fed coffee berries to mass produce the coveted civet cat droppings with coffee seeds. This practice is frowned upon by animal welfare advocates.)
The harvested civet cat excrement is washed clean and roasted.
The bottle of the prized roasted Kopi Luwak beans at My Liberica specialty coffee boutique.
Jason let us try My Liberica's Kopi Luwak.
Only the required amount of roasted Kopi Luwak beans are grounded just before brewing to ensure that it is always the freshest.
The freshly ground Kopi Luwak powder. It has the most robust, densest, and richest coffee fragrance that I have smelled so far. I love it.
The freshly ground coffee powder are poured into the siphon coffee maker.
Jason stirs the coffee with a bamboo stirrer and checks whether the coffee is ready using the most precise instrument known to mankind - the trained nose.
Kopi Luwak at My Liberica RM58++
The freshly brewed aromatic Kopi Luwak.
Both of my coffee kakis who are experienced coffee enthusiasts were impressed with My Liberica's Kopi Luwak. They liked the sophistication of the Kopi Luwak flavours which come in layers, like waves of pleasure one following another. They shared that My Liberica's Kopi Luwak's flavours is multidimensional whereas "normal" coffee is relatively uninteresting in comparison.
As a coffee novice with lots more to learn, I enjoyed My Liberica's Kopi Luwak because I like the robust, clean coffee flavour. I couldn't detect any acidity, so the coffee felt smooth and was enjoyable on the tongue.
At RM58++ for a small cup, My Liberica's Kopi Luwak is a novel luxury most may only indulge in out of curiosity occasionally. Some coffee connoisseurs with an acquired taste may treat themselves to this more often.
If you like to try Kopi Luwak, I recommend My Liberica because you are assured that it is genuine wild civet cat coffee beans harvested ethically.
Restaurant name: My Liberica Specialty Coffee Address: 73, Jalan Molek 3/10, Taman Molek, Johor Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7ZUXG GPS: 1.521567,103.784838 Hours: Monday to Thursday 12:00noon to 10:00pm. Friday to Sunday 9:30am to 11:30pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Date visited: 18 Nov 2013
Today, I am happy to visit My Liberica's coffee plantation at the invitation of Jason, the owner. My Liberica's plantation near Bukit Batu in Johor has tens of acres of Liberica coffee bushes.
Jason, who is passionate about coffee, showed us around his Liberica plantation which included a thrilling bouncy ride on his 4-wheel drive station wagon.
We were lucky to visit during the harvesting season. These are reddish coloured Liberica coffee berries (the size of grapes) ripe for harvesting.
Workers hand pick the ripe coffee berries - very hard work under the scorching hot sun.
Credit: Wikipedia
Also coveting the coffee berries are the Palm Civet Cats that live free in the plantation among the oil palms and coffee bushes. Perhaps better than humans, civet cats know how to cherry pick the best berries.
Inside the coffee berry are two seeds wrapped in a thin layer of juicy sweet tasting flesh. Civet cats love the flesh wrapping the coffee seeds.
Sometimes, civet cats get to the coffee berry before the pickers. This coffee berry had it's seeds eaten by a civet cat.
After swallowing the coffee berries, the cat digests the flesh and pass out the coffee seeds with the excrement. Civet cat droppings are found in random places, littered around My Liberica's sprawling coffee plantation.
At the My Liberica plantation, workers search for and collect this civet cat excrement. One can easily appreciate that the work is tedious and time consuming. Supply is also limited.
(In some other places, captive civet cats held in small wire cages are force fed coffee berries to mass produce the coveted civet cat droppings with coffee seeds. This practice is frowned upon by animal welfare advocates.)
The harvested civet cat excrement is washed clean and roasted.
The bottle of the prized roasted Kopi Luwak beans at My Liberica specialty coffee boutique.
Jason let us try My Liberica's Kopi Luwak.
Only the required amount of roasted Kopi Luwak beans are grounded just before brewing to ensure that it is always the freshest.
The freshly ground Kopi Luwak powder. It has the most robust, densest, and richest coffee fragrance that I have smelled so far. I love it.
The freshly ground coffee powder are poured into the siphon coffee maker.
Jason stirs the coffee with a bamboo stirrer and checks whether the coffee is ready using the most precise instrument known to mankind - the trained nose.
Kopi Luwak at My Liberica RM58++
The freshly brewed aromatic Kopi Luwak.
Both of my coffee kakis who are experienced coffee enthusiasts were impressed with My Liberica's Kopi Luwak. They liked the sophistication of the Kopi Luwak flavours which come in layers, like waves of pleasure one following another. They shared that My Liberica's Kopi Luwak's flavours is multidimensional whereas "normal" coffee is relatively uninteresting in comparison.
As a coffee novice with lots more to learn, I enjoyed My Liberica's Kopi Luwak because I like the robust, clean coffee flavour. I couldn't detect any acidity, so the coffee felt smooth and was enjoyable on the tongue.
At RM58++ for a small cup, My Liberica's Kopi Luwak is a novel luxury most may only indulge in out of curiosity occasionally. Some coffee connoisseurs with an acquired taste may treat themselves to this more often.
If you like to try Kopi Luwak, I recommend My Liberica because you are assured that it is genuine wild civet cat coffee beans harvested ethically.
Restaurant name: My Liberica Specialty Coffee Address: 73, Jalan Molek 3/10, Taman Molek, Johor Map: http://goo.gl/maps/7ZUXG GPS: 1.521567,103.784838 Hours: Monday to Thursday 12:00noon to 10:00pm. Friday to Sunday 9:30am to 11:30pm. No pork, no lard, no Halal cert
Johor Kaki was invited by Christian, manager at Vino Vino Bistro to try their Japanese grill or yakitori dishes.
Vino Vino Bistro in Taman Molek is a very well appointed restaurant with an impressive range of beers, whiskies, fine wines, and premium spirits.
Vino Vino has a private room for those special occasions.
Vino Vino has plenty of choices of fine sake and shochu, needless to say.
And, this is the charcoal fired yakitori station that churns out all the delicious Japanese grilled dishes to go with the fine spirits in Vino Vino. Heading Vino Vino's kitchen is Japanese Executive Chef Inose Kazuhiro who has many years of working experience in Japan and Singapore, and over 10 years in Malaysia.
Before we get down to the yakitori, Christian started us off with a couple of Japanese appetisers. This was the Ockura Mentaiko Ae (RM16), lady's fingers with cod roe.
I liked this Ockura Mentaiko Ae a lot. The tender, crunchy, slightly sweet lady fingers with slimy sap were mixed with savoury cod roe. Excellent, delicious combination that really whetted my appetite.
The Gobo salad (RM16) made with very thin slices of fried fibrous root is a very popular appetiser among Japanese.
Our appetites nicely whetted, it's time for the main course. Yakitori literary means "grilled chicken". So central to any good yakitori menu are its grilled chicken parts.
Nankotsu (RM3), chicken cartilage from the breast bone. My family and friends know that I will always "reserve" this part of the chicken whenever we eat together. I like nankotsu for its crunchy bite.
Torikawa (RM4) or grilled chicken skin and ginan (RM3) or grilled ginko nuts. Crispy and savoury.
When I saw bishop's noses (bonjiri RM6) on the menu, I couldn't resist asking for it. Hey, the best blend of skin, fat, meat, and collagen in a chicken is right here, not anywhere else. They are always good when grilled till the skin is crisp.
Aburi Mentaiko (RM38), cod roe marinaded in red capsicum juices and then grilled.
Salty and savoury with very subtle tender, poppy mouth feel from the bursting eggs, Aburi Mentaiko goes well with drinks, in my opinion.
Tokusei Tsukune (RM6) or "Special Meat Ball" made with minced beef and chicken.
The "meat ball" is dipped in soft boiled eggs and sauce before eating.
Eringi, King Trumpet Mushroom (RM3).
The manager's recommendation, Ocatsuki (RM6) or "Rice Ball in Green Tea Soup".
The steamed rice is compacted into a ball and then grilled till a slightly burnt crust forms. The bits of burnt, crunchy crust matched well with the clear, lightly flavoured broth to create an interesting dish that goes well with yakitori.
We had a couple of wines to help us wash all that yakitori down.
Getting to Vino Vino Bistro is really easy. Just 15 minutes' drive from downtown Johor Bahru via the EDL (Eastern Dispersal Link). If you don't want to drive, Vino Vino even has a limo service (actually a SUV clearly painted Vino Vino) in which they will pick up diners from anywhere in town and bring you to the restaurant. After your dinner, Vino Vino's limo will send you to anywhere you want to go in Johor Bahru town. Just call Vino Vino at 607-357-6699. I think this is a really thoughtful and helpful service. I will use this service the next time I am going to Vino Vino, and perhaps, indulge myself a little bit more in the drinks :)
I would definitely like to come back to Vino Vino Bistro for the food, drinks and the ambiance.
Restaurant name: Vino Vino Bistro Address: 12, Jalan Molek 1/13, Taman Molek, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/BCkwD GPS: 1.527851,103.789719 Hours: Monday to Saturday 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight / Sunday 4:00pm to 12:00 midnight Non Halal
Date visited: 1 Apr 2013
Johor Kaki was invited by Christian, manager at Vino Vino Bistro to try their Japanese grill or yakitori dishes.
Vino Vino Bistro in Taman Molek is a very well appointed restaurant with an impressive range of beers, whiskies, fine wines, and premium spirits.
Vino Vino has a private room for those special occasions.
Vino Vino has plenty of choices of fine sake and shochu, needless to say.
And, this is the charcoal fired yakitori station that churns out all the delicious Japanese grilled dishes to go with the fine spirits in Vino Vino. Heading Vino Vino's kitchen is Japanese Executive Chef Inose Kazuhiro who has many years of working experience in Japan and Singapore, and over 10 years in Malaysia.
Before we get down to the yakitori, Christian started us off with a couple of Japanese appetisers. This was the Ockura Mentaiko Ae (RM16), lady's fingers with cod roe.
I liked this Ockura Mentaiko Ae a lot. The tender, crunchy, slightly sweet lady fingers with slimy sap were mixed with savoury cod roe. Excellent, delicious combination that really whetted my appetite.
The Gobo salad (RM16) made with very thin slices of fried fibrous root is a very popular appetiser among Japanese.
Our appetites nicely whetted, it's time for the main course. Yakitori literary means "grilled chicken". So central to any good yakitori menu are its grilled chicken parts.
Nankotsu (RM3), chicken cartilage from the breast bone. My family and friends know that I will always "reserve" this part of the chicken whenever we eat together. I like nankotsu for its crunchy bite.
Torikawa (RM4) or grilled chicken skin and ginan (RM3) or grilled ginko nuts. Crispy and savoury.
When I saw bishop's noses (bonjiri RM6) on the menu, I couldn't resist asking for it. Hey, the best blend of skin, fat, meat, and collagen in a chicken is right here, not anywhere else. They are always good when grilled till the skin is crisp.
Aburi Mentaiko (RM38), cod roe marinaded in red capsicum juices and then grilled.
Salty and savoury with very subtle tender, poppy mouth feel from the bursting eggs, Aburi Mentaiko goes well with drinks, in my opinion.
Tokusei Tsukune (RM6) or "Special Meat Ball" made with minced beef and chicken.
The "meat ball" is dipped in soft boiled eggs and sauce before eating.
Eringi, King Trumpet Mushroom (RM3).
The manager's recommendation, Ocatsuki (RM6) or "Rice Ball in Green Tea Soup".
The steamed rice is compacted into a ball and then grilled till a slightly burnt crust forms. The bits of burnt, crunchy crust matched well with the clear, lightly flavoured broth to create an interesting dish that goes well with yakitori.
We had a couple of wines to help us wash all that yakitori down.
Getting to Vino Vino Bistro is really easy. Just 15 minutes' drive from downtown Johor Bahru via the EDL (Eastern Dispersal Link). If you don't want to drive, Vino Vino even has a limo service (actually a SUV clearly painted Vino Vino) in which they will pick up diners from anywhere in town and bring you to the restaurant. After your dinner, Vino Vino's limo will send you to anywhere you want to go in Johor Bahru town. Just call Vino Vino at 607-357-6699. I think this is a really thoughtful and helpful service. I will use this service the next time I am going to Vino Vino, and perhaps, indulge myself a little bit more in the drinks :)
I would definitely like to come back to Vino Vino Bistro for the food, drinks and the ambiance.
Restaurant name: Vino Vino Bistro Address: 12, Jalan Molek 1/13, Taman Molek, Johor Bahru Map: http://goo.gl/maps/BCkwD GPS: 1.527851,103.789719 Hours: Monday to Saturday 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight / Sunday 4:00pm to 12:00 midnight Non Halal
