Ipoh White Coffee

Ipoh white coffee comes from Ipoh, the old tin-mining city in the Malaysian state of Perak – a town Lonely Planet has ranked among the world’s great coffee towns. The beans are roasted in palm-oil margarine but, unlike ordinary Malaysian kopi, without sugar (and without the wheat some kopi roasters add). That gives a lighter roast with a nutty, buttery aroma and less bitterness.

The brewed coffee is mixed with sweetened condensed milk, often frothed by pouring, and served in a china cup or over ice. The finished drink is a light caramel brown – the beans themselves are not white. The name is a translation of the Chinese bái (白), which here refers to the plain, sugar-free roast; bái can also mean “unadulterated”.

The traditional kopitiams of Ipoh Old Town still serve it in the classic way, but white coffee is now best known worldwide as an instant drink. Malaysian brands sell it as 3-in-1 sachets (coffee, creamer and sugar) and sugar-free 2-in-1 mixes, and Malaysian cafés from London to New York serve it fresh.

Ipoh white coffee is usually traced to Chinese migrants – often said to be Hainanese – who came to Ipoh in the 19th century to work in the Kinta Valley tin mines and in the town’s trade. They found the bitter, dark coffee preferred by the British too harsh and adapted it: the beans were slow-roasted in margarine rather than with sugar, giving a milder, smoother brew.

Exactly who first made it is not documented, and different families and companies tell their own versions of the story. What is clear is that the style became the house coffee of Ipoh’s kopitiams in the Old Town, and that its Chinese name, 白咖啡 (“white coffee”), refers to the plain roast rather than to milk.

From the late 20th century local manufacturers turned white coffee into an instant drink, and 3-in-1 sachets carried the name across Asia and beyond. It was chosen as the official beverage of the Malaysia Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.