The World’s First High Coffee Experience by Popinjays x NOC

NOC is a brand that is rooted in curation. We are meticulous over every detail, and everything we do is considered to give an unparalleled experience of simplicity with substance: the collaborations we take part in are no exception. We are delighted to announce the world’s first High Coffee Gastronomy Experience, our collaboration with Popinjays at the Murray, in which we offer a curated afternoon coffee experience to coffee lovers and gourmands of Hong Kong.

Following the relocation of the HKSAR Government’s headquarters to a new complex in Tamar Park, the vacant Murray Building was refashioned and transformed into The Murray, a 5-star luxury hotel, by British architect firm Fosters+Partners. To allow guests to ‘rediscover the romance of going to a hotel’, special attention was devoted to the creation of refined, Modernist interiors using the clean lines and geometric volumes from the building’s original structure. The 336 sophisticated guest rooms in the hotel are some of the most spacious in town, featuring pared back aesthetics and a vision of relaxed refinement.

Located on the hotel’s top floor is Popinjays, a glamorous rooftop bar and restaurant serving up contemporary European cuisine, and a breath-taking panoramic view of Central, Hong Kong Park and Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Sharing our core brand value of curation and a passion for offering to customers an impeccable dining experience, the team at the Popinjays will be serving a medley of coffee-afternoon tea delight pairings, co-curated by Chef Alexandre and Sam, our Head of Coffee.

Your Experience begins with a refreshing NOC canned cold brew, brewed with our signature house blend No.18. The nutty notes and full body of the ice-cold coffee accentuate the rich and flavourful foie gras, salmon gravlax and lobster roll from the Savoury Trio.

Alongside the luscious Sweet Trio of Opera Cake, Gianduja and a Bergamot and Raspberry Tart, a pourover coffee will be brewed on-the-spot by the Popinjays’ very own baristas, who were trained by Sam in the Lab of our Whampoa location.

For the pourover coffee, guests may choose between the Ethiopia Anasora Samii and the Panama Ninety Plus Perci Gesha, both selected and roasted by our roastery team. Grown and processed in very high altitudes in Guji, Ethiopia, the high sweetness and fruity tasting notes of bergamot and lychee make Anasora Samii a perfect coffee to pair your sweet treats with. Meanwhile, the Panama Ninety Plus Perci Gesha is a rare lot of competition coffee from prominent coffee producer Ninety Plus: its creamy texture, intense aroma and tasting notes of rum cherry, longan and chocolate will elevate the flavour profile of your Sweet Trio.

The Murray is situated in the former Murray Building, a colonial-era government office block that housed the Hong Kong Government from 1969 to 2012. During the time he worked and lived in Hong Kong, British architect Ron Phillips was given the brief to design a building on Cotton Tree Drive to accommodate all subunits of the Public Works Department.

At first, Mr Phillips and his colleagues thought this was a straightforward project. But as the Building Services team looked closer into the task at hand, they realised that there was something more they could achieve. Hong Kong is a humid, subtropical climate, and air-conditioners have always been a necessity to multi-storey buildings: while he was mindful of cost, Mr Phillips saw this as an opportunity to create an energy-efficient building using design principles.

The result of the team’s mindfulness and hard work was a beacon of progressive thinking and an iconic landmark of Hong Kong, donning a stunning white facade, elegant arches that are four stories high, and a signature pattern made up of square punched-windows. By recessing the windows at a 90-degree angle to the plane of elevation, the design prevents the harsh, tropical sunlight from streaming in, reducing solar gain and hence, the need for air conditioning in the building. This ground-breaking, energy-conserving element gained the Certificate of Merit of the Energy Efficient Building Award in 1994.

While our city is home to many beautiful examples of Modernist architecture, they are often passed unnoticed. The High Coffee Gastronomy Experience would be a wonderful opportunity for you to indulge in a selection of specialty coffee-paired afternoon tea treats, and to appreciate the hotel’s rich history, architecture, art and modern chic facilities.

To enjoy the Experience, please click here to reserve a spot via the official website of Popinjays, or call +852 3141 8888 for more information.