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When I thought I would have an eight-hour layover in Singapore on my way to Australia a couple of years ago, I immediately started researching the speciality coffee shops that I might visit. Sadly, the layover didn't work out, but my research didn't go to waste as I spent just over two days in Singapore at the end of my recent trip to Malaysia . I visited eight coffee shops and roasters during my stay — Saturday was a particularly caffeinated day, as I sought to stay awake for my very late flight back to London. Not by coincidence, my hotel was also located in easy reach of many of the coffee shops on my list. The quality of the coffee was consistently very high, but my very favourites are marked in purple in my Google Map. *  Apartment Coffee I visited this small, minimalist coffee shop on the recommendation of the barista I met at Strangers' Union (see below), and was really impressed with both the coffee and the experience. Almost all of the seating in the narrow cafe i...

Speciality coffee wasn't my main reason for  visiting George Town  on the Malaysian island of Penang, but I was delighted to visit six great coffee shops and roasteries during my short visit. I was even there during the three-week-long Penang Coffee Festival , although the early stages of the festival had more of a focus on desserts and was based in a mall a few miles out of the city centre, so I wasn't able to stop by. Read on to find out more about my speciality coffee experiences in George Town; my favourite spots are marked in purple in the map below. 2F+ Coffee Roastery A serendipitous discovery while I was photographing the famous George Town street art work known as 'Brother and Sister on a Swing', coffee roaster 2F+ has a small café located in a small arcade just off Pengkalan Weld. 2F+ hadn't come up during my research but they have a couple more coffee shops on Penang and another in Bangkok, Thailand. Although single-origin pourovers are on the menu, I was...