They quit their corporate jobs to offer S’poreans a newer way to enjoy coffee—concentrates

As coffee aficionados, Ong Lee Ting and Christabel Cher loved to brew their own coffee at home. Their time together in Melbourne exposed them to the Aussie coffee culture which heavily emphasised on specialty brews.

But being career women made it hard for them to do so every day. They just couldn’t seem to find the time to brew coffee from scratch. 

Sure, the market had other options but they either compromised on convenience or quality. Coffee houses offer freshly roasted brews at the cost of time, while instant coffee comes with preservatives.

So the duo sought to change the coffee landscape and started Wake The Crew, a brand pioneering cold brew coffee concentrates for the average joes in Singapore.

Bringing a new option to the table

“What we wanted to bring to the table was a coffee option that is able to provide the purest and highest quality without compromising on convenience,” Lee Ting told us. 

Packed in glass bottles, you just need to mix the liquid coffee concentrate with either water or milk to get your daily dose of quality caffeine.

The concentrates are roasted and brewed in-house using three types of single-origin coffee beans. Namely, Brazil Santos, Colombia Supremo, and Ethiopia Sidamo. There’s also the Nanyang Roast variant for those that enjoy a more local taste.

The coffee beans undergo two procedures to get the brand’s signature coffee concentrates—immersion and a cold concentration process.

Initially, the coffee beans are steeped in water for a period of time. This allows the coffee grounds to fully saturate in water, extracting flavours and compounds differently. Once done, the brew is further concentrated using Wake The Crew’s own cold concentration process.

Each bottle comes in either 250ml (SG$18) or 500ml (SG$28) and can make up to 10 servings. There are also bi-weekly and monthly subscriptions where you can get a few of them delivered at one go.

Fate is a funny thing…

In a way, you could say chance played a large role in this business. 

Lee Ting and Christabel first met in Mannheim, Germany during a university exchange programme. Upon graduating from NUS, the two were a little lost and decided to do a working holiday in Australia. 

That’s where they learnt more about coffee, such as the different kinds of coffee beans and brewing methods. Each of them also had personal experiences in running their own businesses in the past.

“The confidence to launch Wake The Crew came from our shared vision to bring a fresh and innovative product that will fill a gap in the coffee market,” Lee Ting stated.

“The excitement of building our brand from the ground up, coupled with the confidence we have in our product, gave us the courage to take on the challenge of entrepreneurship.”

But the idea for selling coffee concentrates wasn’t exactly planned. 

At the time, the two friends were already making cold brew concentrates to overcome their daily brewing struggles. They found it kept the best coffee flavours for the longest time while providing convenience and versatility.

So they began sharing them with family and friends, who eventually suggested selling them. One thing led to another and the pair started an online business before jumping into Wake The Crew full time.

Using the same recipe since 2020

Similar to many F&B startups, it all began in a home kitchen. For Wake The Crew, specifically, this was Lee Ting’s kitchen.

The R&D process took over six months with the pair making batch after batch of coffee concentrates. They experimented with different coffee beans and brewing ratios to achieve the initial prototype.

The brand uses that same recipe for its products even today, with minor tweaks to fine tune the overall process and get a higher coffee concentration.

Their current bestsellers are the Brazil Coffee Concentrate and Nanyang Roast Coffee Concentrate. Between the two, Lee Ting shared that the former is more profitable but both of them have a healthy profit margin.

Besides coffee concentrates, the duo have expanded the brand’s catalogue to include cold brew tea concentrates. There are also ready-to-drink cold brews sold in 240ml bottles. Some flavours include Latte (SG$6.5), Black (SG$6.50), Kopi (SG$6.00), and Oolong Milk Tea (SG$6.50).

But this wasn’t really in their plans. In fact, they were initially adamant on sticking with just coffee concentrates to differentiate themselves from others. 

“However, we later accepted a few orders from customers requesting ready-to-drink cold brews and found that they were a great way to taste what our coffee concentrates can make. It also translated to more brand awareness which led to more sales of our coffee concentrates.”

Continuously innovating as they grow

Having learnt to embrace deviations in their path, the duo later came up with their latest product—individual sachets of coffee concentrate. 

Sold in boxes of eight sachets (SG$9.80), this product allows them to penetrate another market segment. These sachets don’t need to be chilled which makes them easier to distribute. 

The brand’s also working to partner with the hospitality industry such as hotels. So maybe you’ll find them in place of your regular coffee capsules in the future. 

Another aspect that the brand prides itself on is its strong sustainability slant. “We strongly believe that profitability and environmental responsibility can coexist harmoniously and it is more important to focus on how we can make small choices that would help the environment,” Christabel explained.

Wake The Crew’s approach is by donating used coffee grounds to a community garden. This garden engages the elderly and retired individuals through gardening and planting edible greens.

“We are also committed not to pass on sustainability costs to our customers as much as possible. We believe that these should be part of the cost and responsibility of doing business,” she said. As the business grows, the pair aim to continuously evaluate and refine their sustainability pursuit.

The brand has recently grown its international presence by entering the Malaysian and Vietnamese markets. Their next goal is to obtain HACCP and halal certification for their production facility.

Ultimately, the goal is to be renowned for delivering high-quality, innovative, and convenient solutions. And so far, they seem to be on the right track to achieving that.

Featured Image Credit: Wake The Crew