The 1950's Coffee • Michelin Recommended Nanyang Kopi📍Chinatown Complex 五十年代

1950's_Coffee_Michelin_Nanyang_Kopi_Chinatown_Complex_五十年代

There are literally thousands of coffee stalls and cafes in Singapore serving Nanyang kopi (Malay word for coffee).

Nanyang kopi is made with Robusta beans, sometimes mixed with other beans such as Liberica and even grains such as corn.

Robusta is usually mixed with sugar before roasting. Sometimes, margarine is added.

The grounded beans are brewed by steeping in hot water in a long neck kettle and filtered by passing through a long cotton sock.

1950's Coffee stall in Chinatown Complex is the only Nanyang kopi stall among thousands in Singapore that is honoured in the Michelin guide Bib Gourmand list.

The Nanyang kopi by The 1950's Coffee is a dark robust brew. Dark roast, medium bodied, fairy smooth, not harsh, but little aroma (that's the nature of Robusta beans compared, for example, to the more aromatic Arabica beans).

Without sugar or condensed / evaporated milk it is bitter, though not in an unpleasant harsh way. It doesn't have an ashy bitter taste of kopi with too much carbonised grain fillers or too much caramelised sugar.

Nowadays, I drink my Nanyang kopi without sugar or milk, known locally as kopi O kosong (literally coffee black with nothing added).

The closest thing to kopi O kosong in Western style coffee is Americano.