Typica Cafe 豆原 @ Shaw Parade

**Note: Since I am getting quite a number of comments regarding the Ice Drip Coffee’s name.. this was how it was written that day. Was it a ‘K’ or ‘R’ for ‘Rwanda’, and was it ‘Musasa’ or ‘Murasa’? You be the judge. But thanks to some commentators now I know there’s such a coffee called ‘Rwanda Musasa‘

I am probably going to offend a lot of Typica Cafe fans out there with this post. Actually, I had two options. I could either parrot what the others are saying and pretend to adore this cafe and everyone will be happy, or I could just tell my feeling it as it is. Well, I have decided to be honest and go for the second option.
First thing first, you need to know the coffees here are not cheap because of the rare siphon-brewing method – at least in KL. The cafe’s owner also makes frequent trips overseas to source different types of coffee beans that are not commonly available in Malaysia. She even roasts them personally so it is truly a commendable passion.

For serious coffee connoisseurs, they definitely unearthed a hidden gem. But for casual coffee lovers like me, I think my level is far from being able to appreciate these gourmet coffees appropriately. So when I read some people’s experience saying that they are able to appreciate the greatness of Typica’s coffee after just one visit, it feels funny to me because most of them admitted they don’t even drink coffee on a regular basis.
I had the Kwanda Murasa @ RM28, basically an Ice Drip Coffee. I was told it is brewed using a seasonal coffee bean imported from Laos that has a chocolatey taste. It must have involved some really rare coffee bean produced by some secret coffee farmers because there is absolutely nothing I could find about “Kwanda Murasa” on Google. And yeah, it comes in a big mug filled with ice cubes, very cool I know.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to to undermine the idea of Ice Drip coffee and the tedious hand-making process involved. In fact, I really tried to appreciate the ‘subtleness’, ‘smoothness’, ‘full-body-ness’, ‘lingering coffee taste’ and ‘intense flavor minus the sourness and bitterness’ everyone has been raving about – sip by sip – but I just don’t feel it? Sorry to say this it is just an overpriced Kopi O to me.

Coffee with Chocolate Milk – RM15, another cuppa which I feel is overpriced.

There are two versions of Tiramisu here, RM10 for the normal version and a whopping RM25 for their ‘homemade’ version. A difference of RM15 in pricing hints that there should be something special about the latter, and I am thinking that they soaked the sponge cakes using the pricey siphon coffee. All that aside, it turned out just average and tasted nothing particularly special. For the real deal, go to Opus – it is more affordable yet so much more delicious over there.

The Mango Delight @ RM10 is the only thing I felt worth paying for. Forget about the homemade cookies, they don’t come cheap as well. For RM8 you only get 50g of them which is about 8 pieces in total. Daylight robbery.

Our damage for this tea break was RM86, which convinced me that the next time I could afford a cuppa at Typica Cafe would be the day when I become rich (fingers crossed) I can’t help but feel Typica Cafe is more of a cafe for hipsters who now feel hanging at Starbucks is too mainstream already. Typica is too small to be cozy, has vintage decor and complete with a pet cat as an added cliche. So if you want to ride the hipster wave this would a great place to start.

Typica Cafe
GL-08, Ground Floor, Shaw Parade
Jalan Thambi Dollah 55100 KL