Cupping Room Coffee Roasters

Overview

Kapo Chiu opened the first Cupping Room in Hong Kong's Stanley Market in 2011, after starting his MBA in San Francisco and getting hooked on Blue Bottle's retail model. He met Andy Sprenger of Sweet Bloom (Denver) at the 2012 Vienna World Brewers Cup, became Sweet Bloom's first wholesale customer, and rode that partnership to 2nd place at the 2014 World Barista Championship in Rimini and 3rd place at the 2017 WBC in Seoul. The operation began roasting in 2017 on a Probat UG15 from the 1950s and now spans four Hong Kong locations plus the Doubleshot all-day dining concept opened in 2019 with general manager Yung (former head of coffee at Pacific Coffee).

Known for

• Kapo Chiu — 2nd place 2014 WBC, 3rd place 2017 WBC, 3x Hong Kong Barista Champion
• Inspired by SF Blue Bottle during MBA studies
• Long-running partnership with Andy Sprenger / Sweet Bloom Coffee
• Probat UG15 from the 1950s as primary roaster
• Doubleshot all-day dining and bar concept
• First specialty roastery in Hong Kong to scale beyond a single cafe

Why it matters

Cupping Room is the operation that put Hong Kong on the specialty world map. In a market with no domestic coffee tradition and where competition for retail customers comes from convenience stores and bubble tea, Chiu built a four-shop roastery and finished on the WBC podium twice — proof that Hong Kong could produce world-class coffee, not just consume it.

Production

head roaster

Kapo Chiu

roaster machine

Probat UG15 (1950s)

Café

299 Queen's Road Central; 18 Cochrane Street; 32 Swatow Street; plus Doubleshot

Recognitions

• Kapo Chiu: 2nd place World Barista Championship 2014 Rimini
• Kapo Chiu: 3rd place World Barista Championship 2017 Seoul
• 3x Hong Kong Barista Champion

Sources

• https://www.baristamagazine.com/kapo-chiu-business-owner-roaster-barista-competitor/
• https://www.aprilcoffeeroasters.com/blogs/coffee-with-april-podcast/kapo-chiu
• https://www.doubleshot.hk/bio
• https://coffeeandtales.cratejoy.com/cuppingroom
• https://perfectdailygrind.com/2018/01/the-rise-of-hong-kong-in-the-specialty-coffee-world/