Coffee & Tea

If you’ve been to any local coffee stalls to order coffee, you’ll realise the plethora of terms Singaporeans use to differentiate the type of coffee or tea they wish to order.  It took me quite a while to memorise all the terms so here’s a reference guide for anyone who’s unclear.

Kopi – coffee with condensed mlk

Teh – tea with condensed milk

Kopi C – coffee with evaporated milk (the ‘C’ is derived from a brand of commonly used evaporated milk, Carnation milk)

Teh C – tea with evaporated milk

Kopi O – “O” refers to w/o milk

Teh O – tea w/o milk

Gau – strong / thick

Poh – thin

Kar Dai – (literally add base) = sweet

Siew Dai – (“less base) – less sweet

Using a combination of the above terms, you will be able to efficiently order your drink from the local kopitiam (literally coffeeshop).

For e.g., if you want strong tea w/o milk, it’s “teh O gau”.   Slightly sweet and weak coffee would be “kopi poh siew dai”, and so on.

Got that sorted out now?

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