Three Little Birds Coffee Desa ParkCity

Joey Mah’s passion for filtered coffee is further underpinned with the opening of Three Little Birds’s second outlet. While espresso-based coffee is still available, we suggest you make a beeline for the filtered kind made using a rotating selection of single-origin beans. The star attractions here are two sleek filters that gleam on the coffee counter – steampunks.

Never before seen in KL, a steampunk delivers filtered coffee by way of digitalised machinery, assuring consistency that’s difficult to achieve with pour-overs. Joey crafts a coffee ‘recipe’, uses the steampunk parametres to apply his settings, and the machine starts the filtering process to produce coffee at an accurate temperature. If you think it’s all a bit showy, the smoothness and complexity of your drink will make a believer out of you.

Though it’s enough to make any devoted barista envious, the steampunk isn’t a tool that’s immediately accessible in most independent coffee bars in KL. For starters, prices float around the RM30k mark. Fortunately for Joey, Artisan Roastery is somewhat distinguished for its (hefty) investments in fancy machinery – the brand’s state-of-the-art Smart Roaster by Loring coffee roaster that sits smugly in the debut Sentul outlet set Artisan back an approximate RM400k.

Behind all the gear, Joey’s core coffee principles are staggeringly clear: He strives to brew coffee that is ‘non-offensive’, a signature quality that was once celebrated by cult followers of Nowhereman Coffee. This is to mean that his roast’s natural nuances come through without disruption of notes like bitterness. Fans of coffee that will have you bouncing off the walls, stay away.

In set-up, this outlet at Desa Park City is structured similarly as its Sentul branch except for a breezy lake view and bold splashes of yellow and red. While you sip on Ethiopian or Brazilian blends, look out to happy dogs on short leashes and waddling ducks on the manmade pond. With the addition of paleo lunches supplied from Aweome Canteen, cakes from #TartArt and Little Tee Cakes, and tea from Hojo Tea, Three Little Birds is showing itself as a leading purveyor of coffee in KL’s third-wave scene.