Sliema Just Got a Specialty Coffee Studio With Eastern Soul and Serious Credentials
There is a small corner of Sliema — known locally as Lazy Corner, for reasons that turn out to be historically interesting — that has quietly become something rather unexpected.
Once you spot the red door, you’ll find two things: a specialty coffee studio heavily influenced by the East, and a curated souvenir shop — Archivenir — selling self-designed Malta prints, enamel pins, silk scarves and postcards worth taking home. Sakura to Sea Coffee Studio & Archivenir opened about a week ago, and it’s already one of the more interesting things to land in Sliema in a while.
Behind it is Joshua and Lina, a Chinese couple who moved to Malta and built the whole thing around their own taste. Both are certified Q Graders — one of the highest professional qualifications in the coffee industry.
Photo: Zoya Pavlova
They roast their own beans in-house and run two signature espresso blends: Samurai, a modern take on traditional coffee flavours, and Flora, an African blend with floral and fruity notes. Single origin pour overs and syphon brewing are also on the menu, alongside house-baked giant cookies from their own recipes.
The well-priced menu covers all the bases: espressos, cortados, flat whites, cold brew, Lava Mono and pour overs, alongside a tea selection running from peach oolong to matcha latte and cold brew peach oolong.
There’s also lychee sparkling, hot chocolate made with Belgian chocolate and strawberry and vanilla milkshakes. For something stronger, the two alcoholic options are a Nikka whisky neat or The Daydreamer — whisky, warm milk, and a touch of wistfulness.
The design, as the owners will tell you themselves, is neither Chinese nor Japanese — it’s simply a blend of everything they love. Timber joinery, shoji-style screens, a red noren curtain above the bar, Eastern-inflected details throughout. It works.
On the wall, a short essay on the history of Lazy Corner — from post-war British naval officers’ bar to the Sliema Wanderers’ Supporters Club — invites guests to share old photos and memories. A coffee studio with a small archive project running quietly in the background.
A delightful addition to Sliema which I’m sure will be welcomed with open arms for years to come.
Opens 8am.
Sakura to Sea Coffee Studio & Archivenir
Sliema
Website
