73-year-old granny sells hipster coffee from home in Joo Chiat back alley

While Joo Chiat is famous for its colourful Peranakan conservation houses, it’s a plain-looking terraced house on Tembeling Road that’s been attracting buzz on social media recently. Tucked along an alleyway is three-week-old Kopikhoo, a cute home-based coffee kiosk that’s only noticeable because of its Peranakan-style window carved out of a drab, off-white wall.
The lady in the window is chatty 73-year-old, Paulin Khoo, who serves artisanal coffee from her home kitchen. 
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The idea to open Kopikhoo came from Paulin’s son, Nicholas Khoo, 48, who set up the biz to give his mum something fulfilling to do during her retirement. He explains: “The initial inspiration came from neighbours like (popular coffee kiosk) Kohi Coffee and (home-based pizza biz) Long Weekend Pizza. I thought, why not set up something that empowers my mum, who’s 73, so that she can make her own keep even though she’s retired, from the comfort of home?”. 
Paulin lives together with Nicholas and his family in their two-storey six-room terraced house. She retired from her job as a preschool teacher in 2005 when her first grandkid was born. Since then, she’d been busying herself taking care of her five grandchildren. Now that the kids are older, Nicholas proposed the idea of Kopikhoo. She took him up on his offer, and ended up enjoying it. “My son wanted to start this coffee biz. He invited me to try it, and along the way I came to love doing it,” she chirps. 
Interestingly, Nicholas admits that his mum “doesn’t drink coffee” – the duo only decided to serve it as Nicholas has contacts with local roasters, and figured that coffee-making would be simple enough for Paulin to pick up. To set up the biz, he invested in a second-hand Gemilai triple-boiler espresso machine from China that cost $3K. 
Paulin tells us that she was initially a little hesitant to join Nicholas’ venture, as she had never learned how to use a coffee machine before – in fact her preferred drinks are tea and Milo. “My initial reaction was that I’m a bit worried because I don’t drink coffee, and I’m worried that I can’t make it well. But after many tries, my son let me make free samples [for our neighbours], and I got more confident in myself and every day has been a joy for me,” she shares.
The 73-year-old tells 8days.sg that she can’t drink too much coffee as it causes her gastric problems, but has sipped some in the process of perfecting her recipe: “I make it a point to taste it,” she says. 
Though Nicholas himself has no professional barista experience (he works in sales and marketing), he learned how to make coffee as a hobby during the Covid lockdown, when he invested in a small machine. 
He tells us that Paulin learned how to use their new espresso machine pretty quickly: “I customised everything for her and made it very simple. I think for [elderly folks], you need to simplify things and keep them standardised. She picked it up quite fast even though she started from scratch,” he says. 
Nicholas and his five kids help out at Kopikhoo on weekends, while Paulin runs the shop by herself on weekdays.
So far, Nicholas says business has been slowly picking up, and Paulin sells an average of 30 cups per day. While they haven’t made any profit yet, Nicholas says they’re hopeful, especially since they don’t have to worry about rental costs. 
“On weekdays, people who walk by Kopikhoo are generally from the neighbourhood, but we’re starting to see people coming from places like Chua Chu Kang and Bedok, who say they’ve learned about us from TikTok”. 
He adds that they may introduce cakes and cookies once business stabilises. 
Kopikhoo is at Tembeling Rd, S423606. Open Mon – Fri 8am – 4pm; Sat 12pm – 4pm; Sun 8am – 11am & 2pm – 4pm (hours might differ). Tel: 80870112. More info via Instagram and Facebook. 
Photos: Kopikhoo, Google/Muhammad Ahmad Magad
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