History

Kopi, also known as Nanyang coffee, is a traditional coffee beverage found in several Maritime Southeast Asian nations. Often brewed to be highly caffeinated in strength, it is commonly served with sugar and/or milk-based condiments. This drink originated from the British Malaya era, with Hainanese cultural roots. The name of the drink is derived from the Malay term for coffee. The term Nanyang, which means "South Sea" in Mandarin, refers to Maritime Southeast Asia. Kopi culture vocabulary is grounded in Hokkien dialect as a result of historical immigration to Maritime Southeast Asia from the Minnan region in the south-eastern part of Fujian Province in Southeastern Mainland China. The beverage is usually served in coffee shops, hawker centres and kopitiams across the region.

In Malaysia, Kopi is recognized as culturally significant and part of the everyday diet and lifestyle of many Malaysians. It is habitual for Malaysians of all ethnicities and ages to customize their Kopi using the Hokkien dialect. The Malaysia coffee is distinct from other types of coffee due to its roasting process and preparation technique involving a variation of the Torrefacto method.

Kopi, is also a popular drink in Singapore, Brunei, and Southern Thailand. Tenom in the East Malaysian state of Sabah is a major regional producer of coffee beans, which is used to brew Kopi. which is widely consumed throughout the state and the neighbouring kingdom of Brunei. The beans are processed using traditional firewood and drum rotation methods and typically without addition of any artificial ingredients or colourings.

Sabah during the administration of British North Borneo, Coffee was first planted in concentrated mainly in the area of the east coast on the forest reserve near mangrove areas with the coffea arabica variety. However, due to a severe outbreak of disease, the plantation efforts were initially abandoned by 1910. Since then, coffee production was concentrated in the west coast area. Tenom received attention when the British North Borneo Chartered Company (BNBCC) established coffee and other plantations in the area. To take the resources to major towns, a railway line from Melalap to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) was built by the British in the late 1890s. To increase the coffee production, many laborers from China, mainly those of Hakka and Cantonese descent were brought to Tenom by the British as local workforce. Today, Tenom is widely known as an agriculture site with large coffee production and has been dubbed as the "Sabah's coffee capital". Due to its large demand from other countries since 2010s, the government began to help to address the shortage of raw coffee supply in Tenom.

Processing

Beans and sources

Kopi traditionally uses Robusta coffee beans. During Colonial Malaya and North Borneo, the Chinese partook in exchanges with Arab traders who carried with them Indonesian Robusta beans, and these beans grew better in Malaysia's conditions as opposed to Arabica beans. The common type of Robusta beans used in Malaysia is the Indonesia EK-1 species. In 21st Century Malaysia, Robusta beans continue to be largely imported from Indonesia and Vietnam. In a bid to modernize, heritage brands choose to use gourmet beans from South Africa and Central America.

Roasting

Hainanese-style Kopi, the general traditional preparation process involves using a combination of 80% beans, 20% sugar and margarine in the roasting process for a duration of 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Halfway into the roasting time, salt is added. Sugar is also added at the end to provide a caramelized finish and takeaway any bitter aftertaste. The result is a richer and more fragrant coffee than Western-style coffee. This method has been said to hold slight similarities to the common Torrefacto roasting method in Argentina, Costa Rica, France, Portugal and Spain.

Serving

To serve, the ground Kopi powder is placed in a muslin bag and boiling water is poured over it. It is then stirred using a long stick or chopstick. After, the brew is transferred back and forth between two large cylindrical kettles with upright tubular spouts tapering to the pouring end. The purpose is to aerate and cool the Kopi.