Malaysia Specialty Coffee Association

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Tribute

Malaysia Specialty Coffee Association (MSCA) would like to express our gratitute towards Joey Mah, for upholding Malaysia barista’s standards all these years - bringing our Malaysia Barista Champions to shine in the world stage from the beginning of the WBC Sanction. For grooming numerous talents in the country & bring remarkable results from the world stage.

We sincerely thank you for your contribution throughout the years, may you rest in grace and love.

Below are some comments extracted from MSCA's social platforms:

Joe Hsu

"I am so sad to hearing this news,language cannot express my feeling , cannot stop my tears. Malaysia just like my hometown, I love all the coffee friends here! If there are one thing really worth to mentioned that is the volunteers of coffee colleagues willing to help and work with each other to make progress and improving for the country , and Joey just shine the case , l lost a very good friend and I think Joey will love to see the Malaysia barista stand strong on the world stage to highlight the effort and value and how great Malaysia barista is! Miss you Joey!"

Kelvin Ngow

"You are well remembered, well respected and means so much to the people you cross path with. You still one of the most ‘lan Si’ person I know. But that’s you. Gone too soon. May you Rest In Peace. You have done great!"

Amin Ghasemzadeh

"Malaysia's coffee industry would not make it this far without you. I wouldn't make it this far without you.

It's very sad to know that you are not physically there anymore but I am very grateful for the days that we worked together.

Thank you Sifu."

@ronaldwbinati

"Deepest condolences to his family. Indeed a big loss to the industry. He will be remembered"

Aaron Phua

"Hey Joey,

I am still just lost in all these that is happening. Seeing you today laying there, the reality kicks in. You really are no longer with us.
Thank you for being part of my life. You will now always be in my memories.

There are so many things I can say about you but I really admire how you persevere and don’t give a **** about what people say and you do you.Thanks for all your guidance for comps on how to calibrate better and to understand my palate better. I still rmb how just the two us calibrating a bag of geisha and I just wasted a kilo of it, instead of killing me you bought me lunch (your favourite kyochon). Really appreciate that you risk your life smuggling 10L of milk into US for our world comps. Taking me to Jakarta for a championship workshop was one trip I will never forget bcs I mange to force you to take a selfie together with Dale Harris which is smth that you will never ever do hahaha.

Ate so much durian including our trip to Jakarta we hunted for durian that we cannot in KL until we almost start an actual group called Malaysian Specialty Durian Group.

Some days I still feel like I let you down for not doing well at World comps (forgot my training time and still fail my calibration on stage). Was a fun one definitely.

I guess is time to say bye bye.
See you when I see you my lansi trainer and roaster.
Rest in peace now Joey."

#CoffeeIsNotAFlavour

Daniel Liew

"He was someone indispensable to the specialty coffee industry in Malaysia. Many of the National champions we had in the past we coached and developed by him, he train them and even roasted for them. If not for him many wouldn't have made it to the world stage. He came for WCEP at BGA but like almost all he didn't make it the first time, instead of giving up he attempted the JC exam again not once but twice. We weren't in good terms when we both started out in this industry. But we both respected Joe Hsu who adviced us both to work together. And over the years we've had some amazing headways for this country.

We at BGA salute you and thank you for the times you have supported us at our events. We lost a brother and a dedicated coffee trailblazer! You will be missed."

Meliha Faisal

"Joey believed in me right when no one did, wouldn’t have peaked in the span of my short lived coffee career if it wasn’t for him. He was on point with his craft from the get go and the passion for it was always brimming RIP friend"

Shang Hsieh

"Although we have never met, we love CAFEC together. This afternoon when I was having a meeting at CAFEC in Japan, I heard the bad news from Ms. Hikari Sakai. Her eyes were red from crying, and I kept comforting her. Thank you for your contribution to coffee in Malaysia, I am sure people will miss you immensely. See you again in the Lord! RIP"

Jason Loo

"Dear Joey,
You meant the world to me, for bringing me up to who I am today.
We met 9yrs ago, I literally hated you when we first talked about coffee, that how much you disagree in competition after I was crowned the champ back then. But, moving forward, you came to me, and asked me to work together for the first sanctioned competition to represent Malaysia.
I asked "Why? Since you never really believe in it. And you said, it's about making good coffee and putting Malaysia on the world map of coffee."

Ever since then, you have been my biggest inspiration and motivation to move forward in this industry. We understand each other better, and you have guided me to a world that I never knew existed. We had hard times and disagreements, but that is what brought us closer together. You taught me about self motivation, building confidence, and giving back to the people around us. You are my mentor, and silently leading me with a direction I didn't know I was heading to.

It's too short of a time, you left. Where was the promise you said 6 months ago, "Jason Loo, I owe you this journey, let's do it again for the world." It was supposed to be happening real soon, isn't it?

Joey, I believe you are in a better place now. The past few months have been a tough time for you, but you insist to only bring joy to people around you and silently take in all the suffering. I hope, I made you proud all these years. May you rest in peace, your legacy will stay on in all of us."