A slice of Singaporean-style cafe culture

A new cafe is bringing more mass-market coffee shop culture to Phnom Penh – including pumpkin spice lattes. BCBG Cambodia, which held a “soft opening” late last month, also operates a French pastry distribution business out of Thailand and a local catering service.

The cafe is owned and managed by Long Soklyda, who graduated from university in Boston and returned to Cambodia last year after a brief stint in Singapore. She found herself disappointed by the quality of coffee in local shops.

“I am a coffee lover, and I always drank good coffee in Singapore,” the 25-year-old said this week. She added that she has travelled to a lot of different countries, and wanted to bring foreign coffee flavours to the BCBG cafe.

In her shop, Soklyda serves beans sourced directly from Singapore, and has partnered with another wholesaler in Australia to bring in tastes from countries all over the world: France, India, Korea and Brazil, to name a few.

But BCBG also offers selections that aren’t so focused on the beans, such as powder-based pumpkin and sweet-potato lattes and fresh, cold-pressed juices “The pumpkin latte is our special-offer drink,” Soklyda explained.

BCBG prides itself on the quality of its coffee and cakes. SCOTT ROTZOLL

At BCBG, a hot coffee costs $1.95 and a pumpkin or sweet-potato latte is $2.95. Cakes and pastries on the menu go for about $2.50. Above all, Soklyda emphasises that BCBG Cambodia is an “international coffee shop”.

“Expensive coffee shops have mushroomed in Phnom Penh,” she said. “But our place offers a different coffee quality because we spend more money to bring it in from outside the country.”

BCBG is located at #299 Mao Tse Toung Boulevard, and offers delivery service. Tel: 023 210 723.