In Conversation With Shaun Liew, Malaysian Brewers Cup Champion

by The Blend Mag Editorial Team

By the time most of us are still negotiating with our alarms, Shaun Liew has already had his first serious conversation of the day.

Not with a person, with a cup.

"Morning brew ritual?" we ask him. He doesn't miss a beat. "Hot black coffee," he says, like it's the most natural thing in the world.

If you follow Southeast Asia's café scene, you already know his name. Shaun is a two-time Malaysian Brewers Cup Champion (2017 and 2019), a title that's basically the Olympic gold of hand-brewed coffee. He walked away from a university lecturer job in hospitality to dive headfirst into specialty coffee, and today he splits his time between running Ono Specialty Coffee & Matcha and his own roastery, Curate Coffee Roasters, both known for making high-level coffee feel wonderfully approachable.

But if you're expecting a hyper-technical coffee geek vibe, you'd be wrong. Shaun talks about coffee the way some people talk about their social life.

"Coffee is not just a beverage, it's a tool to connect with people," he tells us. "Describe coffee in one word? Relationships."

And suddenly, it makes sense that this man built his whole career on the simple act of pouring hot water over ground beans.

He remembers the exact cup that started it all; a shot that tasted like blueberry jam and chocolate at a coffee symposium back in 2012. Fast-forward a decade and more, and that first shock of flavour has expanded into a full universe: competition stages, roasting profiles, and cafés that blend design, storytelling and hospitality in the way only Asia really can.

"The East side is very progressive in terms of coffee culture, as compared to the West," he says with a grin. "We are very adventurous and willing to explore new things."

Coming from someone who's flown the Malaysian flag on global stages and now mentors the next wave of baristas, that's not just patriotism, it's field research.

When you ask Shaun what "adventurous" looks like, he doesn't start with processing methods or extraction curves. He starts with people.

At Ono Specialty Coffee & Matcha, which he co-founded with matcha maestro Syun Hattori of Niko Neko Matcha fame, the menu flips between precise pour-overs, indulgent signatures and matcha-based drinks that could only have been born in this region: playful, aesthetically driven and quietly serious about quality.

Curate Coffee Roasters, his roastery-boutique, is a different kind of playground, a sleek, workshop-ready space where single-origin beans and experimental roasts sit proudly on the retail shelves, and Malaysians wander in to taste, learn and talk about coffee with his team.

"People here are curious," he says. "They're not scared to try an Ecuadorian coffee, or a different brewing style. That's what I love."

When we throw him a rapid-fire question about the most underrated coffee origin, he doesn't hesitate: "Ecuador." Not the trendy answer. Exactly the point.

You can map Shaun's brain by the cafés he loves.

In Japan, there's Koffee Mameya, a kind of temple to minimalism and bean-focused obsession, where the barista's questions feel like a gentle interrogation of your soul. In Australia, it's Small Batch Coffee Roasters, one of Melbourne's OG names in specialty coffee, rooted in sourcing transparency and progressive roasting. In Thailand, he lights up talking about Factory Coffee, Nana Coffee and Fika Coffee, all part of Bangkok's and Chiang Mai's rise as serious coffee destinations, blending big flavours with big personality.

We ask him which café he's dying to visit next, and he surprises us again: Maze Lab in the Czech Republic. The East Asian champion, dreaming about a European lab café halfway across the world, proof that curiosity runs both ways.

Back in Malaysia, though, his world is pleasingly simple.

Morning: hot black coffee. Music while cupping? "LoFi or zen," he says, background beats that give the coffee space to speak. The rest of the day is a rotation of roles: coach, roaster, co-founder, occasional travelling judge, forever student.

What strikes us most is how little ego is involved. For someone with two national titles and a growing mini-empire of coffee spaces in and beyond Malaysia, Shaun still talks about his journey like it's just beginning. There's a constant sense of we—we, the Eastern coffee community; we, the curious drinkers; we, the ones willing to try an Ecuadorian filter instead of another safe Colombia.

"The East side is very progressive…we are very adventurous & willing to explore new things," he repeats, as if he's not just describing his customers but himself.

And really, that's the core of his appeal to a new generation of Asian food lovers: Shaun doesn't sell coffee as an expert talking down. He invites you in as a fellow traveller, one cup at a time.

If you're reading this anywhere in Asia, chances are there's a café near you right now where someone cares a little too much about water temperature, grinder burrs and the precise flavour of your cup. Shaun's advice, if we can call it that, it is simple: go there. Talk. Ask what they're excited about. Try Ecuadorian. And if you're brewing at home, put on a LoFi playlist, make yourself a hot black, and remember that somewhere out there, a Malaysian Brewers Cup champion is doing the exact same thing.

Because in his world, coffee is not just fuel or aesthetic; it's a kind of social glue.

"Coffee is not just a beverage," he told us at the start. "It's a tool to connect with people."

In a region as restless and flavour-obsessed as ours, that feels like the most luxurious thing of all.

If stories like Shaun's make you want to book café-hopping flights across Asia, or just upgrade your morning mug; stay plugged in with The Blend Mag. We're here to bring you closer to the people, places and plates shaping how Asia eats and drinks now!