Then there is the world-first self-serve batch brew bar, inspired by beer taps, designed to help filter coffee lovers skip the queue. Coffee is also integrated into the menu in creative ways; Single O’s banana bread is served with warm coffee-infused butter. Then in the middle of the pandemic, Single O set up its first international cafe in Tokyo and now supplies its beans to over 100 cafes in Japan, a difficult market for Western businesses to crack.

“Take something that people are familiar with … and go, well, surely there must be a better way,” says Dion. “We’re not very good at cookie-cutter,” Emma adds.

The roaster’s mercurial nature is why the Cohens are largely unconcerned about sales volumes amid economic storm clouds and tightening household budgets that have already begun to hurt consumer spending. After all, Single O practically sailed through the 2007/08 global financial crisis.

“We did not see a dip. If anything, we grew,” they said. “People stuck to quality, they appreciate something that’s important to them. It’s not $50, it’s three or four or five bucks.”

Like every other retailer, Single O has seen prices of everything increase across the board; Dion rattles off a laundry list, from the price of beans to the price of freight, energy, wages, and rent. Across the country, countless cafes have lifted coffee prices to offset the higher costs.

Single O was no exception – in fact, they were one of the earliest to move. But rather than being apologetic about it, they got loud.

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“We took a stance to be quite vocal about that on our channels,” said Emma. “We stand to make sure the cafes we support survive. You gotta put the price up. We can’t control inflation,” added Dion.

Guided in large part by “grassroots insights” and “gut instinct”, the pair’s commitment to maintaining coffee quality and being very picky about the cafes they supply to (among a dozen enquiries a week, they might pick one) has seen them earn loyalty among customers and staff alike and provided a buffer during the COVID lockdowns.

The duo has attracted a strong management team of “black sheep” from the corporate sector, former employees of coffee behemoths Nespresso and JDE Peet’s. Overseeing operations is general manager Michael Brabant, a former brand manager at ASICS and Bacardi, who has just notched six years with the specialty coffee roaster.

As the business celebrates its 20th anniversary, the Single O co-founders aren’t quite sure which way the wind will blow or where that will take them. But they are sticking to their guns.

“It pays to be different. In more ways than one,” the Cohens say in the same breath.

“You don’t always have to act like a business to attract more business.”

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