Mervin
Merv - Founder / Roaster / Barista at Double Up Coffee
Located along Jalan Klapa, you will find a coffee shop that has very raw finishes, screed flooring and concrete benches. A space with no frills apart from the lively greens that front the entrance of the shop, the classic red-yellow-blue chair, and the skateboard-turned coffee table. This independent coffee roaster introduced itself to the local coffee scene back in late 2019 through the e-commerce platform. When it was time to transition from being an online presence to having a physical space, COVID-19’s circuit breaker struck two months after their opening.
It definitely would have been the most challenging of situations for many business owners, but having launched its brand online prior, they were able to soften the impact through the continued sales of their retail beans online as well as the opportunities for guests to try their coffee through takeaways. Fast forward today, Double Up Coffee has become a bit of a destination spot for coffee lovers.
Being someone who enjoys drinking coffee, and like many of us who think that being a barista is such a cool thing to do, Mervin, founder of Double Up Coffee, took on a part-time position in 2014 with the now defunct Department of Caffeine for a year while waiting for a desk job. While it was meant to be a transitional period, Mervin ended up slinging shots for Brawn and Brains for 2.5 years as a full-time barista and another 2 years with One Man Coffee.
In the first quarter of 2019, during a period of self-exploration, Mervin shifted his gears down and part-timed with a few independent coffee shops. This was a challenging period for Mervin because there was a significant dip in his income since he wasn’t drawing a regular income from being a full-time barista.
The trade-off for the loss of income was the opportunity to pick up the intricate art of coffee roasting from Aslam of The Community Coffee. Mervin would tag along with Aslam during his roasting schedule, who generously shared his knowledge.
Double Up Coffee was incorporated in July 2019, and their roasted beans were retailed on social media in the next couple of months. This allowed Double Up Coffee to build an online presence, as Singapore moved into a circuit breaker phase in April 2020 when all forms of dining-in were prohibited 2 months after Double Up opened its coffee shop.
As Mervin reflects on his journey of running the shop over the past 3 years, he expresses the challenge of maintaining a strong brand presence with the saturation of coffee shops in a small country like Singapore. While that has always been an ongoing challenge for many brands locally, the other challenge is the lower barrier to roasting, which has seen a rise in many independent roasters. This gave consumers more options to choose from, but it also meant a smaller cut in the pie for many other roasters.
While he manages a coffee shop, Mervin has also sought continuous improvement himself as a professional by attending advanced sensory and roasting courses by Jake Hu from Taiwan. With the belief of equipping himself with the proper knowledge, Mervin feels more comfortable with the product he put forth, as well as the idea of helping others.
Having worn the hats of being a competitor, coach, and judge in competitions, one personal goal for Mervin is the hope to narrow the competency level between local judges. Judging in competitions is something in the pipeline for Mervin’s pursuit of personal growth, both in the format of pushing himself to be more critical in tasting as well as learning how regional or international judges perform during competition and bringing the knowledge back to Singapore to share.
As we conclude this story about Mervin and his journey with Double Up Coffee thus far, he has a quote for every aspiring entrepreneur and service professional.
“If you are not doing anything different, why are you here? I think when you reach a point where you cannot control everything, focus on the two things that matter most- quality and customer service.”
Author’s note: Double Up Coffee has since closed its doors on 12 Aug 2023. Mervin still be found behind the bar at Fluid.
Written for A Coffee Talk by Ker You Quan
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CrYlYKkP7Cm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
