Kopi Se.rasa: Friends turn love for coffee into a business
Kopi Se.rasa is a business owned by two friends, Iddatul Akmah Hj Ismail and Pg Noraqilah, who are both passionate about sharing their love for a cup of joe with other coffee enthusiasts.
When they first started, the local business started out by selling one-flavoured milk coffee which instantly became a hit by customers and now the business is expanding its menu to non-coffee drinks such as Green Tea, Red Tea and Chocolate.
The idea behind this business initially started because of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was when Iddatul bought her coffee in bulk because she was afraid that it would sell out. With that, she started trying out different types of coffee in search of her favourite.
“Having to try varieties of coffee and find the one we loved the most, we came up with the idea of sharing the coffee with our friends and families. Receiving a lot of overwhelming feedback from friends, we decided to try to sell it for our side income. Since then, Kopi Se.Rasa was invented,’ said the 34-year-old.
The two friends are running the business with the help of their siblings and the production point for the drinks are in Kg. Serasa and they have two pick up points which are Kg. Serasa and Kg. Lambak B.
“The name Kopi Se.Rasa actually has two meanings; it was produced in Kg. Serasa and “Se-Rasa” means one taste or flavour which Kopi Se.Rasa only came with one flavour of milk coffee,” said the entrepreneur.
The entrepreneurs would call themselves coffee addicts and they wanted to share that love for coffee with others and initially, their plan was to sell different flavours of coffee but looking back at the past few years, their popular drinks were Green Tea and Red Tea.
This motivated them to add on another non-coffee drink which is the two teas and chocolate and their best selling drink up to date is still the one flavour coffee.
According to Iddatul Akmah, the uniqueness of their product is within the coffee itself and the packaging as they made it their very own as well as the ingredients put into each drink, the coffee that they offer is measured with a precise amount of milk and they control the sweetness to balance with the taste.
“Moreover, the packaging we offer is limited to 350ml and 500ml of bottles only. What’s more, is that we recently added a complimentary jelly on our big size bottle,” said Iddatul.
The drinks are being offered in two bottle sizes and they are 350ml for $3.50 per bottle and 500ml for $5.00 per bottle with added jelly.
With a small team for the production and packaging, having 4 flavours, for now, is enough for them with the limited number of hands and they are grateful that customers are satisfied with what they have.
In just a small amount of time they started this business, in October 2021, their drinks have managed to capture the attention of customers where they have gained about 2000 followers in their main selling platform which is Instagram.
There were times when they encountered challenges when there was a high demand for their drinks from their customers and they could not meet that demand as there were not enough bottles of coffee for all and they had to limit the orders per day.
The entrepreneurs overcome these challenges and take it as positive feedback that customers are loving their drinks and they are grateful to be able to grow and continue their business.
The 34-year-old believes that with business, don’t overthink and just do it, overthinking makes people indecisive and that pushes the desire to start up a business and passion will be going to waste and they are happy that with their passion for coffee, they are able to build their own business.
Have a sip of what Kopi Se.Rasa has to offer and visit their Instagram @kopi_se.rasa to see the drinks menu that they have.