Fruity, spiky coffee

— Photo: SAM THAM/TheStar

People say if you want something done right, do it yourself. This was the case for the guys behind Lovea Durian White Coffee, who tried 40 types of durian coffee before deciding they could do it better. MEK ZHIN talks to Benson Wong, MD of Love A Durian.

How did you become involved in the durian white coffee business?

I was actually advised by others more experienced in the F&B industry not to go into the instant coffee business because consumers were now heading towards gourmet coffee. A combination of factors got me into it anyway — one of them being my two business partners, a friend and his brother, who really wanted to do it and persuaded me to join.

I guess it is in my nature as an entrepreneur to try new things and not to do anything half-heartedly too.

Durian coffee is no longer a new product these days. What made you guys believe in it?

When I came onboard, I told the brothers that nothing less than the real thing would do.

First thing we did was to embark on our own market research, which meant trying over 40 kinds of durian coffee that were already available.

We didn’t like what we were tasting, and after some lab testing, we found that many of the products on the market were just fragrances to trick the tongue into tasting the durian.

Since we were adamant about only producing authentic products, our next step was easy in that we just needed to find a manufacturing partner who could produce coffee mixed with real durian.

What kind of process did you guys go through in developing your coffee?

We found a source for D24 durians, which is naturally sweet, thus allowing us to reduce the amount of sugar we needed to add to the product.

The fruit’s flesh is freeze dried and made into a powder and added to the highest grade Arabica coffee beans and, voila, we have Lovea Durian White Coffee.

Our product is manufactured in a factory with a lot of experience in such products and also has all the relevant certifications such as HACCP, ISO, GMP and halal-certification.

It sounds simple but everything took about nine months of research and development, as well as many, many taste-tests.

I think some 2,000 of our friends helped provide critical feedback for Lovea during this period.

We took it in our stride and did a lot of fine-tuning for our product before we were completely satisfied with it.

Your packaging is quite unique in that the branding is not very obvious. Why is this so?

Our branding is quite obvious, though! We also wanted to keep it simple but with a ‘wow’ factor which actually creates a very strong impact. Our 3D durian print packaging, without the product name on the front is done on purpose because we feel that this product’s target market should be tourists.

The durian is a local icon, and tourists, who at the least understand coffee or find durian very expensive back home, would appreciate such a product.

Hardcore coffee lovers might find this a little hard to accept; the same with durian lovers.

Innovation is often the key to success, so how is Love A Durian tackling this?

We are actually planning three product categories to be launched in phases. Our second phase is for a new coffee category we call ‘breakfast coffee’ which is suitable for drinking in the morning for those on the go. Why breakfast? Because it is filling as we have put brown rice powder in it, which has the added benefit of helping us cut the amount of sugar added into the mix as it is already sugar.

We also put in vitamin B which can help with de-stressing. I’m not a coffee person but this has become a must! By the way, I highly recommend the Pulau Ketam beehoon to go with it.

Our next phase, which we are already working on, is a premium black coffee range targeted at serious coffee drinkers, and we already have some interesting ideas for it.

Your products seem to be very different from one another. Why is this so?

We are trying to cover the three types of coffee-drinkers in the market, so each product category we launch is catered to that.

Tourism is a huge thing in Malaysia and the rest of Asean, thus we decided to launch our durian white coffee first, with a view to capturing the Asian market, in particular China and Thailand right now.

We need the volume in order to get the ball rolling.

Where can you find Lovea Durian White Coffee products and how much does it cost?

There are some places that offer it such as DMT’s Kitchen in PKT Logistics’ One Logistics Hub and The Lunch Box in Sunway Monash Residence.

Its recommended retail price per box of 12 sachets is RM38.80. Our product is also available on Aeon’s e-commerce website shoppu.com.my.

With so many businesses under your belt, what do you do to relax?

Whenever I have the time, I like to write out my thoughts on the insights I have gained or something that has inspired me. Maybe one day these could be the foundation for another book from me. I have written 11 books to date.

Where do your entrepreneurial inspirations come from?

I have a motto I go by that basically revolves around the idea of taking care of the three bottom lines every business should look into, something I learnt while on the DMT Study Tours. They are people, planet and profit.

Everything I do should be for the benefit of those three things, which in turn creates sustainability and a ‘gorgeous company culture’, another one of my taglines, which I believe benefits myself as well as those I work with.