Ipoh white coffee

This article is about Ipoh coffee. For coffee with milk, see White coffee.

A cup of Ipoh white coffee in OldTown Kopitiam in Melbourne, Australia.

Ipoh ‘white’ coffee is a popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The coffee beans are roasted with palm oil margarine, and the resulting coffee is served with condensed milk. As part of commercial selling, the main popular brands of Ipoh white coffee are the OldTown White Coffee.

Origins

The term ‘white coffee’ originates from the literal translation of its Chinese name, which was introduced in the 19th century by Chinese migrants who came to work in the local tin mines. The coffee beans themselves are not actually white; the colour comes from the milk stirred into the end product.

Styles

A glass of Ipoh iced white coffee.

Traditionally, Malaysian style ‘black’ coffee roast (Kopi-O) is produced by roasting the beans with sugar, margarine and wheat.

‘White’ coffee, on the other hand, is produced with only margarine and without any sugar, resulting in a less dark roast. Ipoh White Coffee is also widely available in an instant version. It is sometimes consumed after dinner.

The generic term ‘Ipoh white coffee’ in Chinese is "怡保白咖啡"(Jyutping: Ji4bou2 Baak6 Kaa1fei1). Baak6 "白" (pinyin: bái), commonly meaning white, has nothing to do with the colour in this instance, but is rather a reference to the way the coffee is roasted. In Chinese, Bái also means ‘without’ or ‘unadulterated’, nothing has been added to the coffee during the roasting process.

Ipoh white coffee was adopted as one of the official drinks at the Malaysia Pavilion at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.

See also

• Tenom coffee
• List of coffee drinks