PLACES
RITUALS
PEOPLE
BOLDER
STORIES
01 THE BELIEF
NANYANG COFFEE
DESERVES ITS PLACE
ON THE WORLD STAGE.
KOPI-O exists to champion Nanyang coffee and the people, places and traditions behind it.
Not by reinventing what is ours, but by carrying its unmistakable character into new places and giving the world new ways to discover, experience and celebrate it.
KOPI-O is our tribute to the culture we grew up with, and our invitation for the world to share in it.
MADE FOR THE WORLD.
RITUAL OF
SINGAPORE
COFFEE
CULTURE
02 WHY NANYANG COFFEE
EXTRAORDINARY,
HIDING IN
PLAIN SIGHT.
For generations, kopi has been part of the rhythm of life in Singapore.
It is poured in kopitiams at first light, shared between friends, and taken between long hours of work. Bold, aromatic and comforting, it belongs to everyone.
Yet beyond our shores, this rich and distinctive coffee culture remains largely unknown.
How could a coffee culture this rich, distinctive and good still be so unknown to the world?WHY A LIQUEUR? ↓
03 WHY A LIQUEUR
THE WORLD CELEBRATES CULTURES THROUGH DRINKS.
KOPI-O IS OUR
INVITATION TO
CELEBRATE OURS.
We could have made another coffee product. But we wanted to create something that could carry Nanyang coffee beyond the kopitiam and into a new global ritual.
A liqueur gave us that opportunity. It could be poured over ice, mixed behind the world’s best bars, served with dessert, or shared at the end of a meal.
Familiar in character, yet entirely new in expression.
04 THE FOUNDERS
TWO JOURNEYS.
ONE CONVICTION.
01 / NICHOLAS NICKLINCO-FOUNDER, KOPI-O
A REDISCOVERY
OF HOME.
As a Singaporean who lived for more than a decade in the United States, including years in New York as a consultant, perhaps living away made me see Singapore differently.
Food was always a passion. I eventually left the corporate world, wrote a cookbook and returned home to become a restaurateur. In rediscovering the food culture I had grown up around, I began appreciating what I had once taken for granted. Among it was the humble kopi.
The deeper I went, the more I realised that our culture had something extraordinary hiding in plain sight.
For me, KOPI-O is deeply personal. It is a rediscovery of myself as a Singaporean, and an opportunity to carry a culture I grew up with somewhere new.
02 / RALPHCO-FOUNDER, KOPI-O
FINDING HOME
THROUGH KOPI.
Born in Tahiti and raised across New Zealand, the United States and France, coffee was always part of my everyday life. In December 2005, I fell in love with Singapore. What began as a transit destination became my home.
After a failed venture in media, I began selling coffee door to door to offices, events and cafés. Through the difficult years, my Kopi Siew Dai breaks became small moments of calm, comfort and belonging.
Years later, Nicholas and I found ourselves asking the same question: why had one of Singapore’s most iconic drinks never received the recognition it deserved?
KOPI-O represents the feeling of finding home, wherever I am.
OUR CONVERGENCE
FROM AN IDEA
TO A MISSION.
Two different journeys led us to the same belief.
One of us rediscovered the culture he had grown up with. The other found a sense of home within it. Together, we spent five years turning that shared conviction into KOPI-O.
Not to reinvent Nanyang coffee, but to honour its character, celebrate the people behind it and carry its story onto the international stage.
DISCOVER THE OBSESSION →