Sttoke’s co-founder Sam Soong on elevating the coffee experience at home with the right mug

Why did you feel that there was a need to create another coffee mug (whether reusable or not) in what is now quite a competitive market with global frontrunners and trendy brands that go viral online?
That is a very good question. We questioned that since 2018 when the other brands were already popular. 

I think the journey didn’t start with an intention to be trendy, but rather from a perspective of a market gap. It’s just annoying that we could not find a cup out there that draws me to use it every day, [there was] always some problem somewhere about the reusable cup in the market. More importantly, they tend to leech material taste into our beverage, coffee or not.

In every cup that we have designed, we are thankful that much of the progress came from the recognition and suggestions of our customers and partners. It started with a lid, then the sizes, and recently something closer to the coffee industry.

The team at Sttoke believed in one thing: drinking good coffee, while doing our best at delivering it with our products. Delivering every sip like it’s your first was our tagline from the inception of our brand, and down to the real idea of it, it’s delivering flavour consistently through our vessel.

Recently, the team talks about community a lot. We are gradually moving from “every sip like it’s your first” to a running internal phrase we call “making flavourful connections,” and what that means is that we hope to connect more people who appreciate the nuance in flavours, the details in design, the fellowship among people, and more importantly, with our product.

While the coffee industry has been growing year on year, it is slowly seeping its way into home brewing, and what has steered us from day one, delivering the best flavour in our vessel, has also moved our intentions there: delivering flavours, even in the comfort of your own home.

How did you and your team ensure Sttoke would stand apart from competitors?
Staying true to our intentions, and not getting swayed or discouraged by the distractions we face in the market. This is easier said than done!

We have been in the market for six years now. What started as a set-up of two people and one country has now become a web of responsibilities internally and externally, and these responsibility comes in the form of financials, and a lot of them come from questioning: “Are we selling enough, are we selling right, are we doing anything right?”

To be honest, there were a lot of internal arguments about the topic of standing apart, or staying afloat. And the intensity is much more when your competitors get a little public boost every now and then

As mentioned before, it’s down to knowing our intention, and why we as a business exist in the first place. Trusting the process from market research to strategy, to business inception, and holding true to our initial belief.

I don’t think the focus is about standing apart from the competitors but staying true to our intentions and our customers. Focusing on solving one problem together as a team will naturally attract more people to come to us for the same solution. We believe, if we give our heart to our customers, it will come back.

What do you think is the most important feature in a coffee cup and how did the team behind Sttoke work to develop something that would appeal to customers?
Good question! One might think that a new product should be about the coolest features like an Apple product: higher speed, better camera, lighter body, more memory etc. But it was funny because throughout the six years in business, no matter what little features we introduced to the market, everyone just loved the simple fact that we kept flavour good for longer. It was just as simple as that!

Internally, the Sttoke team hasn’t had any professional talent when it comes to product design, and our intention was never about designing the coolest things. Rather, we have always been about “if we were a customer / as a coffee drinker.” So to put it simply, I think it's a balance between creating a new product from your general market research and listening to our customers when creating or improving a new product.

Relating to your questions before, and I do love how it’s being asked the same but from a slightly different angle. We believe a brand is an identity, that is perceived or built out of the consistency of your actions and the expression of your message.

In our case, it’s not about appealing to our customers, but rather a choice of expression of ourselves, the offer of our solution to the market from a problem that we identified in the first place, and further validated through market research. And that could come from a functional perspective as well as the aesthetic approach.

So despite the noise in the market, as leaders of the business and the brand, it would be our responsibility to maintain the balance between staying true to ourselves and staying financially afloat. 

Tell us more about The Swirl Cup and how it was inspired by Young Baek, the 2023 World Cup Tasters Champion.
Funny story! The story of this cup, or the intention of this home cup, was not what it was intended to be when we had our first conversation with Young. If we may be honest, it started as a hard no from a commercial perspective.

Young’s idea was initially to introduce a cupping cup, or rather in layman's terms, a professional tool to be used for quality control on the roastery or farm level to determine the quality of the crop and the roasting. It was, from our perspective, something that was very niche because our position was always from a consumer perspective. We didn’t want to distract ourselves from our intentions, as I had mentioned before. And there was already a lot on our team back then.

We went ahead and tested the concept anyway, with Young running some cupping activities with our Omni Cup to see if what he said made sense. While that was happening, we also had internal discussions with relevant stakeholders.

As the months went on, what we collected were some random comments from the ads about how our cups are so nice to be used at home, and Young’s activities were gaining traction.

We revisited the original idea he had brought up, and he was even more inspired by how this cup could do wonders at the farm level, and how our technology would help the farm in maintaining their presentation of their crop to their prospects, ultimately aiding their business significantly.

Combining those two points, Swirl was born! A cup we could use on a professional level, but also a cup you could use at home.

How is The Swirl Cup different from other Sttoke products?
I must say we are especially proud of this new Swirl, specifically with the possibility of touching lives and doing good with this product.

Consistent with our commuters, both cups deliver consistent flavour, and they both share the appreciation of what the coffee industry works hard to do every day—serving a great cup of coffee. But what’s more with the Swirl is that we are able to solve a new problem by just transferring our technology to more relevant parties. Swirl will serve the cafes and baristas who want to deliver the best cup.
 
 

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