Coffee Or Kopi

Coffee in Singapore does not necessarily mean coffee. The whole concept of plane easy black coffee with or without sugar and milk does not really work here.

In the country of synonyms not even the good old coffee keeps it origin as you will see described in detail below.
Picture by Lepiaf Geo


Kopi Is Not Coffee

If you order Kopi you will get coffee with condensed milk, if you want black coffee you have to order kopi-o, and dont mix kopi-o with kopi-c, that would be coffee with evaporated milk then. And to keep the standart of minimum synonyms in one sentence there are many more for more sugar or less milk and so on...


Coffee In Singapore - Get It Right

• • Kopi: Coffee with condensed milk
• • Kopi-O: Coffee without milk and only sugar
• • Kopi-C: Coffee with evaporated milk
• • Kopi-gau: Coffee (strong brew - “gau” is “?” in Hokkien)
• • Kopi-po: Coffee (weak brew - “po” is “?” in Hokkien)
• • Kopi-C-kosong: Coffee with evaporated milk and no sugar (’kosong” means empty in Malay)
• • Kopi-O-kosong: Coffee without sugar or milk
• • Kopi-O-kosong-gau: A strong brew of coffee without sugar or milk
• • Kopi-bing or Kopi-ice or Kopi-Peng: Coffee with milk, sugar and ice
• • Kopi-xiu-dai: Coffee with less sugar
• • Kopi-gah-dai: Coffee with extra sweetened mil-
• • Kopi-Di-Lo: All coffee, no water

A Plastic Bag Instead Of A Mug?

Its not uncommon to present you your kopi in a little plastic bag with two plastic bands to hold instead of a mug. I havent figured out if its the space they safe through this or if the plastic bags are really cheaper then plastic mugs, however, it works.

Although sometimes it can be really annoying if you want to relax at some bench or the beach and you cant just simply place your coffee next to you but have to hold it the whole time