You know how to drink Nanyang traditional kopi or teh? It’s a funny question to ask, especially to a Singaporean or Malaysian. But yet, many Singaporeans and Malaysians, who have been drinking local kopi (coffee) and teh (tea) with sugar and/or milk for decades, do not actually know the correct way to drink them.
“Stir it and drink! What’s so difficult?”, my friends used to say. The problem lies, precisely, with the stirring. It is easy to just stir and fully dissolve the sugar and/or milk before serving, so why didn’t the person who makes the kopi or teh do it but leave it to the customers?
A recent encounter I had: I sat at a table in a coffee shop, eating my order of toasts and soft-boiled eggs while sipping kopi-O kosong (black coffee without sugar and milk) — my no-frill beverage of choice. A couple in their 30s or 40s entered the coffee shop, seated next to my table and placed their orders. After their kopi and teh were served, they started stirring the hot beverages vigorously, clang clang… clang, until the condensed milk at the bottom of the glasses fully dissolved. Then, the guy took a sip on his kopi and said “Wah kao! This kopitiam‘s kopi so sweet!” in Singlish.
How many times have I encountered such scenario? I have lost count and, in most cases, I will not offer to tell them what they have done wrong — I don’t kaypoh (being a busybody) but, also, there are too many to educate! The only time that I did offer to explain how to drink traditional kopi / teh correctly was to a group of Taiwanese tourists, who made the same mistake and were complaining that the beverages were too sweet to a young waitress. I offered my two cents because the waitress could not explain why the beverages were “too sweet” for them.
To ignorant people, it is always the coffee shops’ fault for serving them kopi or teh that are too sweet to them — and some of them actually write negative reviews online to down-rate the F&B operators, not realising that it is an issue with their own lack of knowledge. And, such knowledge is usually passed down from the older generations, when drinking kopi / teh with them.
So, how to drink traditional kopi and teh with sugar or condensed / evaporated milk the correct way?
(In the paragraphs below, I will use “kopi” to imply both kopi and teh, “milk” to imply condensed / evaporated milk and “kopi-maker” to refer to the person who makes kopi / teh, not the electric coffee-maker.)
Pre-Stirred vs Unstirred Kopi
Understand that traditional kopi can be served pre-stirred or unstirred and also the significance of a teaspoon. No doubt that a teaspoon can be used to stir and hasten the cooling down of a cup of hot coffee, it was intended more for adding and stirring sugar and milk.
There is a third way of serving traditional kopi, which is to serve the coffee as kosong — alongside small pitchers of sugar and milk, or a self-serving shared jar of sugar (not applicable for milk) sitting on the table — and let the customers add the sugar and/or milk themselves. But, it is not a popular practice due to wastage of unused sugar and milk, more utensils required, hygiene issues from sharing, costs (customers usually pay more), spillage and ants, etc.
For pre-stirred kopi, the kopi-maker decides the amount of sugar and/or milk as the appropriate quantity to bring out the best of the drinks, be it “less sweet”, “normal” or “more sweet”, and customers usually have no control over the final beverages — except to increase the sweetness. In some places, a teaspoon may not be provided since there is nothing more to add or stir.
Pre-stirred kopi has one drawback — i.e. what is the definition of “less”, “normal” or “more” sweetness? For sugar, is it half or one teaspoon for “less sweet”, or is it one or two teaspoons for “normal”, and should each teaspoon be level or heaping? Similarly for milk, how many teaspoons for “less”, “normal” or “more”? Playing a part also is the bitterness of traditional kopi, which differ across different brands. There is no such thing as a standard reference across all coffee shops in Singapore and Malaysia, nor the whole world. Every individual’s acceptance of sweetness level differs and it is impossible for every customer to agree to different kopi-makers’ sense of sweetness.
And, hence, the advent of unstirred kopi.
In a glass / cup of unstirred kopi, the amount of sugar or milk added is usually what the kopi-maker perceived as the desired level of sweetness and, probably, a little more — some customers may have preference for sweeter coffee. The customer will need to taste the kopi, stir the sugar / milk gently to dissolve some of it, then taste again, and repeat the “stir-taste” cycle until the desired sweetness is achieved, and the teaspoon is put down — this is the way to drink unstirred traditional kopi.
How to Determine Kopi is Unstirred
For unstirred kopi, a teaspoon will always be provided — this is the first indication, but not always reliable as many coffee-drinkers are too used to having teaspoons with coffee out of habits and some coffee places simply provide teaspoons regardless, even for a cup of kopi-O kosong with nothing to stir.
For kopi-O with a foamy layer on top, white / yellowish spots indicate that sugar is added and not stirred. For kopi, a white / yellowish smudge on the foam indicates that added milk is not stirred.
For kopi-O without a foamy layer, the easiest way is to use the teaspoon to check for undissolved sugar at the bottom of the transparent glass. For ceramic cup, use the teaspoon to scrape the bottom of the cup and bring it up to the surface to see if there are sugar — this will create the first stir as some sugar will dissolve on the way back to the bottom.
Checking for unstirred milk is easier as it is usually a thick yellowish layer at the bottom of a transparent glass. In a ceramic cup, kopi with unstirred milk appears dark-brownish and non-homogeneous.
Unstirred kopi has one drawback too. Those who knows how to drink traditional kopi, and prefers lesser sweetness, usually leaves about 1~2cm of the kopi untouched as this is the sweetest part. And it is a wastage considering how coffee prices have been increasing in recent years — which is one reason why I prefer kopi-O kosong instead of siew dai (lesser sugar), and I will empty the whole glass.
Normally, there will be residue of sugar / milk at the bottom of the glass. If the sugar / milk is completely dissolved, it means the customer has a higher preference for sweetness as compare to the sweetness level determined by the kopi-maker.
In Summary
The next time you order a cup of traditional kopi / kopi-O / teh / teh-O, don’t start stirring it vigorously. Apply the “stir-taste” iterations to get your desired level of sweetness, then put the teaspoon down before continuing to consume more of the kopi.
Why need to put the teaspoon down? One, to prevent further stirring of the sugar / milk subconsciously. Two, when left in the glass or cup, the handle of the teaspoon will poke at your face when drinking the beverage.
In fact, coffee shop owners know whether you know how to drink traditional kopi / teh simply by watching how you stir them. If you complain that their kopi / teh are too sweet, they will laugh at your inexperience — a coffee shop serving unstirred kopi and teh is never in control of the sweetness level, you are!
Know Your Coffee Beans:
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