Asia’s speciality coffee renaissance: Behind the scenes with Jeremy Choong

Asia is home to diverse and vibrant coffee cultures. From Vietnamese Cà Phê Trứng (coffee with egg) to Singapore’s sock-strained kopi, coffee plays a significant role in daily life, serving as a social ritual, a shared experience and a popular beverage.

It was in this space that Chemistry alumnus Jeremy Choong decided to take a leap of faith in 2013. He inherited an ailing coffee plantation from his wife’s family in Paksong, Laos, and set out to transform the family’s small-time coffee business into a high-end one focusing on speciality coffee.

Jeremy, the Founder and Chief Scientist of Paksong Coffee Company, says, “Although I had no prior knowledge about the coffee industry, my organic chemistry knowledge was very useful in developing unique coffee flavours and improving fermentation and processing methods.”

Jeremy’s journey towards crafting a unique coffee experience was not without its share of highs and lows. “It takes a lot of know-how and resources to stand at every transaction point,” he says.

He has since translated his vision into reality, building Paksong into an end-to-end business – from cultivating the beans, to managing its production yield and distribution, and utilising Lazada’s and Shopee’s platforms to sell Paksong’s beans to coffee shops in Singapore, the rest of Southeast Asia and now, China.  

Jeremy, who has been in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutioning for almost 20 years, also draws on his AI skills to improve production, fermentation and coffee tasting processes. 

The key step that imbues great flavour is fermentation: here is where Jeremy’s business acumen and biotechnology expertise kick in. He uses cutting-edge fermentation techniques to attain industry-leading standards in quality and taste, which in turn drive demand and pricing.

Jeremy is also an advocate of environmentally responsible and socially conscious coffee production. At the farming stage, Paksong Coffee uses non-chemical and non-pesticidal ways to attain high crop yields, thereby reducing the ecological impacts on the forests surrounding his plantations.

From small beginnings with only 12 member team from his wife’s family, Paksong has since expanded to include about 250 farmers in the region. It has also become a local social enterprise. Jeremy plans to increase its footprint to more markets in North America and Europe, as well as to diversify its product range to include tea, cacao / chocolate, rice, strawberries and avocados.