A temporary furniture shop themed ‘Hopeless Romance,’ a brewer’s sanctum headlined by Californian Geisha coffee: Xindean Design and One Half Coffee have teamed up for a Chinatown pop-up that blurs the boundaries between design gallery and slow bar.
Serving daily through late August in the SMTH storefront of KL’s Else Retreats, Hopeless Romance focuses purely on pourovers, with a weekly evolving rotation that currently spotlights the Americas, spanning Panama and Bolivia to California.
Sundays on Toro Ranch’s Geisha is an elite coffee from California’s Central Coast in Santa Barbara County, an unconventional terroir far from the tropical regions linked to fine coffee. Ripening at barely 150 metres above sea level, the coffee cherries mature slowly through Pacific fog, ocean breezes and mild temperatures.
One Half does full justice to the freshly ground coffee’s silky profile, unfolding from rose florals to blackcurrant fruitiness and a saline, seaweed-like finish. Sip amid stools and tables by the Penang-based Xindean Design, a timber meditation on imperfection and impermanence, curated by the Sputnik Forest studio.
If you’re visiting soon, congratulate brewer Aaron on his sixth anniversary with One Half this week. Aaron balances patience, passion and precision, coaxing clarity and character from well-rested cups.
