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The brains behind the business are former colleagues Radius Khor and Henry Tan, who got the idea to sell Vietnamese coffee upon realising how few local options there were for this hearty brew.
The former graphic designers fell in love with the coffee during a trip to Vietnam. Khor, previously not a coffee drinker, became a convert after trying it.
Tan, meanwhile, was already a coffee addict, and claims he can drink up to eight cups of Vietnamese coffee a day (although this isn’t recommended for everyone).
Speaking with FMT, Khor explained that since falling in love with the coffee in Vietnam, they looked for something similar in Malaysia but failed to find anything that came close.
“That’s when we had the idea of making and selling our own Vietnamese coffee here,” he said.
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Just as how coffee is sold on the streets of Hanoi, he and Tan decided to start selling it by the roadside in June 2019. Only, instead of using bicycles like the Vietnamese do, they chose to run their business from the boot of a car.
“We actually sold our coffee for one year but no one really knew about us. It wasn’t until one of our customers posted about us on Twitter that we went viral,” Khor shared.
Kee Nguyễn has come a long way in just three years: Khor and Tan now have some 37 outlets spread across the Klang Valley, as well as in Penang, Johor and Melaka.
Their first outlet was, and is, located in Section 14 in Petaling Jaya, with others in Rawang, Subang, Klang, Puchong, Cyberjaya and elsewhere.
Their goal? To provide customers with coffee that will transport them to that part of Indochina from the very first sip.
And when they say authentic, they mean it – all their ingredients are sourced directly from Vietnam, to ensure freshness and bona-fide flavour.
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But that’s not all that makes Kee Nguyễn unique compared with other Vietnamese coffee outlets: Kee Nguyễn sells different variations you won’t find anywhere else.
Its menu includes intriguing concoctions such as yoghurt coffee, coconut coffee, Coke coffee, and egg coffee. Yes, you read right – coffee combined with the world’s most popular soft drink (tasty!), and a version with egg in it, which, no matter how it sounds, is absolutely delicious.
For the curious, Tan explained: “We actually only use the egg yolk and beat it until it creates an airy, creamy, meringue-like fluff, which is poured on top of the coffee.”
While their drinks are crafted for seasoned java aficionados, they also aim to introduce non-lovers of the beverage to the rich, multi-flavoured world of this Asian-style coffee.
“Just like how I became a coffee drinker, we have had many customers experience the same after trying our products,” Khor said with a laugh.
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Moving forward, Khor and Tan have no plans of slowing down. On the contrary – they hope to open even more outlets in Malaysia and, eventually, overseas.
“We have always believed in playing the long game,” Khor concluded. “We hope to bring Kee Nguyễn international and introduce our coffee to the rest of the world.”
Order Kee Nguyễn’s Vietnamese coffee via your favourite food delivery app, or locate the nearest outlet via its Facebook and Instagram profiles.
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