Highlander Coffee was started by brothers Phil and Cedric Ho in early 2004. Phil's career then was in engineering and Cedric worked for the IT industry.
What differentiated the duo from other startups was that the business developed into a passion that saw the company grew and carved a nice niche for themselves.
Frustrated with their lack of proper espresso making skills in the beginning, Cedric took off to some serious hands-on training in Australia; the nearest country that demonstrated high coffee standards then. It was with the clear intention of wanting to impart proper coffee making techniques to their own coffee machine customers that drove them to improve on their barista skills.
The first hands-on barista workshop opened its door to the public in Nov 2004 with the aim of raising the coffee making standards in Singapore. To their own surprise, it attracted not only locals but many other nationalities from around the region to as far as USA! Many have attended this unique workshop with some opening their own successful cafes and others winning barista competitions!
Late 2005, they conducted their first coffee appreciation workshop for a reputable MNC and this has since become a regular fare for countless other organizations.
Beginning 2006, Highlander Coffee Bar was born with the aim to serve consistently good handcrafted espresso beverages. Today, it is the most highly rated place for great gourmet coffee by serious coffee drinkers from every corner of Singapore. Overseas visitors also make their way to this 'off- the-beaten-track' coffee bar to enjoy their coffee when they are in town.
A year later, they were invited to set up a coffee kiosk to serve gourmet coffee to an international medical convention. It was well received by these visitors who come from as far as USA and Europe. This has since became an additional service by Highlander Coffee to organisations that appreciate good gourmet coffee in Singapore.
The company has been featured by the media namely HER World, Berita Harian, The New Paper, The Sunday Times, MediaCorp Channel U, ZaoBao, IS Magazine, The Singapore Women's Weekly, Asiaone.com, Business Times, The Straits Times, WoBao and Eight Days.
To complete customers' coffee experience, Highlander Coffee today offers coffee lovers a coffee bar, retail showroom, coffee training facility, a backend roasting premise and an online ecommerce shop offering a range of fresh hand roasted coffees, espresso machines, coffee accessories for sales all under-one-roof at 49 Kampong Bahru Road.
