Kopi, Kopi O and Kopi C
KopiKO-pee
Thick, dark, butter-roasted coffee pulled through a cloth sock and sweetened at the counter in exact, coded proportions. Learn six words and you can order exactly what you want in any kopitiam in Singapore or Malaysia.
At a glance
- Coffee : water
- 1:6
- Active time
- 2 min
- Total time
- 7 min
- Makes
- 2 cups
- Serve
- Hot or iced
- Kit
- Cloth sock + kettle
Ingredients
Note: Kopitiams make a very strong base and dilute it with hot water to order. That is how gau, po and di lo work.
Method
-
Coffee in the sock, in a pot
Put the kopi powder in the cloth sock and hang it in a heatproof jug or a tall kopi pot.
-
Pour boiling water through
Pour the boiling water through the sock and let it steep for three to four minutes, lifting and dunking the sock a few times like a tea bag.
Steep 3 to 4 minutes -
Pull it between pots
Lift the sock out, then pour the coffee from height into a second jug and back two or three times.
This is the pull. It cools the coffee slightly, mixes it and builds a little froth.
-
Sweeten to the code
Put the milk and sugar in the cup first, according to the order, then pour in the coffee and stir.
Kopi: condensed milk. Kopi O: sugar only. Kopi C: evaporated milk and sugar. Add kosong for no sugar, siew dai for less, gah dai for more.
-
Peng, if you want it iced
For peng, iced, pour the sweetened coffee over a glass of ice. Kopitiams serve it in a tall glass or a plastic bag with a straw.
Why this works
Nanyang kopi is roasted differently from almost any other coffee. The beans, mostly robusta, are roasted with margarine or butter and sugar, which caramelises and coats them. The roasted fat and sugar produce a dark, glossy bean with a flavour of burnt caramel, toast and chocolate, and that heavy, slightly smoky profile is what survives a generous spoon of condensed milk. A light arabica would disappear. This is related to the butter-roasting some Vietnamese roasters use, and both came from the region's Hainanese and Chinese coffee traditions.
The cloth sock works like a large tea bag. Fine kopi powder steeps in boiling water, then drains through the cotton, which lets through more oils and fine particles than paper. That gives the thick body kopi is known for. Pulling the coffee between pots from height aerates it, mixes it, and cools it to a drinkable temperature.
The ordering code is the fun part. Kopi alone means with condensed milk, sweet. Kopi O, from the Hokkien word for black, is sugar only. Kopi C is evaporated milk and sugar; the C is usually traced to Carnation, the evaporated milk brand, or to the Hainanese word for fresh. Add kosong for no sugar, siew dai for less sweet and gah dai for extra sweet. Peng means iced. Gau is extra strong, po is weaker, and di lo means the undiluted base, no water at all. Combine them freely: kopi O kosong peng is iced black with nothing in it.
The drink comes from the kopitiams, the coffee shops of Singapore and Malaysia, many run historically by Hainanese families, who also gave the region kaya toast. A kopi with toast and soft eggs is still the classic breakfast.
Variations
- Kopi O kosong: black, no sugar.
- Kopi C siew dai: evaporated milk, less sugar.
- Kopi peng: iced, with condensed milk.
- Kopi gau: extra strong.
- Kopi di lo: the base, undiluted.
- Teh tarik: the same kopitiam technique with black tea and condensed milk, pulled until frothy.
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Questions
What is the difference between kopi, kopi O and kopi C?
Kopi is coffee with condensed milk. Kopi O is black with sugar. Kopi C is with evaporated milk and sugar. All three are sweet unless you add kosong.
What does kopi siew dai mean?
Coffee with condensed milk, but less sweet. Siew dai means less sugar. Gah dai means more.
What does kosong mean?
No sugar. Kopi O kosong is black coffee with nothing added.
What does peng mean in kopi?
Iced. Kopi peng is iced coffee with condensed milk.
Why is kopi roasted with butter?
Roasting robusta with margarine or butter and sugar caramelises the beans, giving a dark, glossy coffee with strong caramel and chocolate notes that stand up to condensed milk.