09/07/2026
What does it really take to grow Malaysia's coffee scene — not just one cafe, but an entire community? 🇲🇾☕️
Coffee wasn't always part of the plan for the founder of Ghostbird Coffee, Thomas Ooi. For most of his career, he worked in IT — coffee wasn't even something he drank.
That changed during a working holiday in Melbourne, where Thomas was introduced to one of the most progressive specialty coffee scenes in the world. He came back determined to learn the craft properly, teaching himself behind the bar as a working barista.
In 2014, that obsession became The Owls Cafe, opened with his girlfriend (now wife) using a coffee machine from their own kitchen. Thomas planned to roast his own beans in his café, but his machine was unused for most of the day.
Rather than let it go to waste, he pivoted into wholesale. That decision became the foundation of — and even the name carries meaning: "Ghostbird" is the literal translation of burung hantu. Coffee keeps you up. It turns you into one. 🌙
But what's really shaped Ghostbird Coffee is its commitment to transparency, with staff, customers, and suppliers alike — even the hard conversations, like explaining price hikes when raw coffee costs spike.
That same belief in community over competition is why Ghostbird Coffee shares equipment and co-buys green beans with rival roasters, and why it helped build — now drawing baristas from Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and beyond.
His slogan, , sums it all up: no matter what you're drinking now, there's always something better worth discovering.
