Visitors to the village are greeted by the mouthwatering aroma of roasted coffee, colourful murals, and more than 4,000 coffee trees scattered across the compound of houses, shops and even schools.

Since 2015, coffee growing has become an integral part of village life.

Wong Pheng, 71, a resident and sundry shop owner, said the coffee’s rich flavour, with hints of jackfruit and chocolate, made other coffees pale in comparison.

“I can only describe the taste of it as ‘original’. Other coffees don’t have any taste compared to this,” Wong told FMT.

With more than 80 coffee trees spread across his orchard, home, and shop, Wong says the best time to pluck the coffee cherries is when they turn from a pale green to a deep red colour.

In a month, Wong can harvest up to 30kg of cherries, all of which he processes himself. He dries the cherries under the sun, before peeling them with a machine to extract the beans.

After the beans have been roasted for 20 minutes in his coffee roasting machine, they are finally ready for consumption.

Yet, coffee beans are not the only product from the trees that can be consumed.

Another resident, Chong Kuan Lim, 81, who proudly owns five coffee trees in the compound of his house, has found a use for the small white flowers that bloom occasionally.

“I take the coffee flowers, clean them and pour hot water on them. After I drink this, my throat always feels soothed,” Chong said.

Idea ripe for the picking

Although Kampung Kopisan Baru is now a coffee haven, its transformation only began nine years ago when former village chief Chen Kong Hoy had a lightbulb moment.

“Just as people worldwide associate Musang King (durian) with Malaysia, I wanted to make coffee this village’s signature product,” Chen told FMT.

Chen teamed up with Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and the Kuok Foundation to spearhead the village’s development as a thriving ecotourism destination and boost the local economy at the same time.

Through this initiative, villagers received coffee trees for free and could sell their harvest to Chen’s company, Kopi 3 Enterprise.

His company buys the ripe coffee cherries for RM3/kg. The cherries can then be processed, packaged and sold to the public.

However, making this initiative a success has not been a walk in the park.

Chen had difficulties in convincing residents to join the initiative, with only 300 of 650 households willing to participate.

“The reason why this initiative has not succeeded yet is because we do not have enough land (to grow the trees) to fully commercialise our products,” he said.

Chen said the project needs 80 hectares of land to plant an additional 5,000 trees, which is a crucial step toward achieving the goal.

“I hope that our local representatives, regardless of political affiliation, will collaborate with us,” he said.

“I will not give up on making this project a success.”