Chapter One - From Where We started

It is the 4th year of Butler Koffee and many customers were asking how and why do I started my business as a mobile coffee cart caterer in Singapore. Throwback to 6 years ago when I was studying in UK, I have seen many coffee cars parked alongside the street and some were doing business at touristy spots, which inspired me to become who am I now.

Unfortunately, when I came back to Singapore, I realised that we are not able to do business like how UK people do, by driving around and selling coffee. However, I got to know from our friends that we could do mobile coffee cart business for events in Singapore while I was a new barista at one of the specialty coffee bar at CBD area.

After I quit the coffee bar, I started my Koffee cart adventure and Butler Koffee was only the first few players who provided coffee mobile cart catering service back then.

As said before in “our story” ’s page, I was once a butler in the hotel industry for several years. While my role was to serve VIPs, I believed that every guest should be treated like a VIP, where service does not discriminate. I have been trained to serve everyone equally and I have been trained to go the extra mile. I enjoyed serving everyone, and to see their smiles, as well as the turning of strangers into friends.

When I decided to move on from the hotel industry, and restarted my career as a barista, I worked at a UK cafe serving coffee made from "commercial coffee beans", and subsequently at a coffee bar in Singapore serving coffee made from "specialty coffee beans".

Despite differences in product offering, regular customers of the both cafes have returned not just for the products we serve, but also for the service that we provide. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - a quote by Maya Angelou.

As such, the idea of "Butler Koffee" is that, regardless of how much u pay me, be it just 5 dollars for a cup of coffee , or 500 dollars for a stay in a hotel, I will still treat you like a VIP. Coffee is important to me, just like how your business and support is important to me. And also, we deliver the whole cafe concept to your place, and that is why we named ourselves Butler Koffee.

Our goal was to be listed at the forefront as a mobile coffee cart Singapore service provider. Fortunately, Butler Koffee has completed about 300 hundred events in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and It was an honour to brew for some of the brands like Google, Hermes, Tiffany & Co., and Fendi, amongst other well-known brands, over the past three years before the pandemic.

As said in our philosophy, "Passionately brewed, warmly served." - We will continue to deliver the best quality of coffee and service to every guest.

We will continue to work hard and to pursue our goal as to be the top of Mobile Coffee Cart service provider in Singapore.

Stay tuned on the next article about the idea of our brand name Butler Koffee - 咖啡罢了。

Thank you for your time to read this.

xx

Alicia 

Chapter 2- About our brand name

Why did we name ourselves as Butler Koffee 咖啡罢了?

I was working in the hotel line for 9 years before i did a career switch as a barista.

I was a butler manager at movenpick hotel for 3 years to provide exclusive service to all my guests in the hotel, arranged my guests' rooms and looked after their stays throughout their whole hotel stay experience.

At the same time, I assisted to manage the front office team, handled guest complains and resolve issues that happened between the hotel departments.

When I was thinking of a brand name for my coffee cart business, I would also want my customers to know more about me and my concept for the mobile coffee cart catering business. After much consideration, I decided to just put "Butler" in my brand, so that while serving Koffee, I could also share my hotel experience to my mobile cart clients.

In the heart of the brand, Butler is meant to provide personal service to guests at a hotel, on a cruise ship, etc. Hence, the butler in our brand fits well as we deliver coffee cart catering service to your door step, making a mobile cafe happen at your venue.

So why does our Koffee started with alphabet "K"? " It is to start the conversation, between you and me, just like what is happening right now!"- This is how I would answer jokingly to my clients whenever I provided our mobile coffee cart service, in order to break the ice.

However, my idea to make the coffee start with a "k" is that - According to a story written down in 1671, coffee was first discovered by the 9th-century Ethiopian goat-herder Kaldi in Africa, and Afrikaans 's word for coffee is "koffie", which inspired us to have "koffee" in my mobile cart brand name.

During the pandemic period, our coffee catering business was hit badly, and on the second year of covid-19, we pivoted slightly to serve delicious cold brew and that was the time I added on a Chinese name to my brand, "咖啡罢了”.

We always overhear customers' discussion on how to pronounce our store's Chinese name - so it's actually pronounced quite similarly to Butler (in English) for 罢了 - and that's how I got the humorous inspiration for my store's Chinese brand name.

咖啡罢了 directly translated to English would mean - Just Coffee. After all, we are still focused on our Koffee craft, hence I think it suits the overall branding well too.

Thank you for reading this. Stay tuned for more coming up. ☕

X

Alicia