From a passion to the right business. Today Qashier brings you a true story from one of our merchants — a home-based online coffee business, made fresh one order at a time, that grew into a real shopfront: a lovely little slow bar café on Phetkasem 42 called Slowbear BKK, the kindly bear's coffee shop, which started as a passion and became a dream come true.
Let us hear Khun Bell's story and what he makes of using Qashier's POS for coffee shops and cafés in the shop that is, in effect, his heart.
Slowbear BKK: the kindly bear's café, where every cup gets attention
It began with the passion for coffee of Khun Bell, Wuttipat Pattanalertrattanachai, the owner of slowbear bkk. A love of drinking coffee led him to train as a barista, then to start a small online shop during the Covid-19 lockdown, building up experience in the coffee world until he became a business owner in earnest and opened a full shop: a slow bar café that takes real care over every order, all for the best possible experience. That is Slow Bear Bangkok, the kindly bear's coffee, serving quality coffee with attention paid to every cup — and expressing who he is through the way this particular kindly bear makes it.
What makes Slowbear stand out
Slowbear BKK is a coffee brand known for cold drip made from 100% arabica, quality grade beans selected purely with the customer in mind. Most people will tell you that drip, or filter, coffee is easy to drink and offers a wide range of flavours — but brewing drip coffee so that it tastes good and tastes clear takes a certain amount of skill and understanding. With Khun Bell's experience, and beans and equipment chosen with care, it is no surprise that Slowbear has become a favourite among coffee lovers, and built a base of regulars in no time at all.
What is so special about Slowbear?
It starts with the name, which comes from two halves: 'slow bar + bear'. 'Slow bar' points to a distinctive way of making coffee that takes time and care and leaves room to talk to the customers who drop in; 'bear' is Khun Bell himself, the kindly bear. Hence the warm name Slowbear, and an experience that customers find genuinely special.
Beyond that, the shop's extraction takes a good long while, letting the coffee fall drop by drop at one drop a second, so it takes more than 12 to 14 hours before the coffee is ready. Brewing this way exposes the coffee to less oxygen than other methods, which gives it a fine, particularly rounded flavour: fragrant, gently sweet and softer than before. Another pleasure of cold drip is that the sweetness is pronounced rather than sour, with a deeper, more concentrated taste. And cold drip has lower caffeine and lower acidity than a standard hot brew, so it sits easily on the stomach and keeps for up to four weeks — ready to drink, refreshing, with no need for ice.
For anyone who has never drunk coffee before, the shop has a signature menu suited to beginners that still keeps the complexity of the flavours, from quality beans Khun Bell selects by hand.
Slow Bear recommends starting with coffee that has milk or fruit juice in it, to balance the bitterness. These four from Slowbear are very easy to drink indeed.
- Mr. 'P', a cold drip with honey lemon and pineapple juice, which balances beautifully and is wonderfully refreshing 🍍🐝
- Slow White, a milk coffee or iced latte built on cold drip — and the cold drip technique rounds the flavour out so that it is barely bitter at all.
- Black Orange, the orange coffee that female customers love, made with juice from golden oranges that are tart with a touch of sweetness. It goes beautifully with our cold drip, because it takes away every trace of bitterness.
- Mocha, which chocolate lovers must not miss, because the slow bear mocha is built on cold drip like the rest, with the addition of a high-quality, seriously intense chocolate. Mixed with Thai syrup, it could not be better balanced.
Whichever you choose, everything is available to drink in or to take home by the bottle — good for keeping in for the morning before work, or as a gift.
Slowbear BKK: a good shop, good coffee, and a good assistant in Qashier POS
Beyond the quality of the products, the coffee, the pastries and the care Khun Bell puts into how they are made, the other thing Slowbear BKK pays attention to is service and making things easy for customers. To raise the standard of how the shop is run, Khun Bell chose POS hardware to help manage it, because he wanted to cut out the work that did not need doing and concentrate on making coffee and improving every other part of the service. In our interview, Khun Bell told us: "I chose the QashierXL because someone I know recommended it, and because the design of the terminal fits the mood and tone of the shop. It has the functions I need too — two large touchscreens that are easy to use, one for the shop and one so customers can see their order and what they owe, and they can scan and pay right there."
Beyond that, another thing that impressed Khun Bell was the speed of the service and the expertise of the support team, who are on hand to fix problems or suggest ways of managing the shop so it keeps running day after day without a hitch.
The QashierXL POS terminal
Take your coffee shop, café or small restaurant further with Qashier today
If you would like Qashier to be the assistant your food or drink business needs, get in touch for more information. Qashier is ready to support shops and restaurants alike, with both POS hardware for cafés and a capable POS system, and support from our team seven days a week. For more details, reach us on Line Official: @qashier.th or call 02 544 0267