Jet-black coffee in a thick white porcelain cup and saucer with a standing metal spoon beside plain toast on a small plate, on a round white marble table in a warmly lit old coffee shop. — Jet-black coffee with the spoon standing in the cup, on a marble coffee-shop table with toast.

Coffee-Shop Kopi with Condensed Milk, Singapore 1933

Name: Kopi
Prep time: 2 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 7 min
Cuisine: Singaporean
Ingredients: 15 g dark-roast ground coffee; 170 ml water; 20 g sweetened condensed milk

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Jet-black coffee poured over a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk, left for the drinker to stir until it turns light brown: the four-cent coffee-shop cup of 1933 Singapore.

By Forgotten DrinkPublished October 29, 2026

Recipe makes: 1 cup, about 170 ml
Prep: 2 min
Cook: 5 min
Total: 7 min

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Jet-black coffee with the spoon standing in the cup, on a marble coffee-shop table with toast.

The story behind the recipe

Coffee in a 1933 Singapore coffee shop came “jet-black,” with the sweetened condensed milk still on the spoon at the bottom of the cup, and the customer stirred it in until the coffee turned “a lighter brown colour.” It cost four cents with milk, about 30p today, and two cents less without, according to a writer in the Sunday Tribune. (We convert the Straits dollar at its fixed rate of 2s 4d sterling, by UK consumer prices from the Bank of England.) This recipe is that cup, from the evidence in that one article.

Black, or rejected with scorn

“So long as it is black, the coffee is good,” the 1933 writer reported. “Pale coffee, even though it be made of the best beans obtainable, they will reject with scorn.” The milk had to be generous: “The milk must be on the spoon at the bottom of the cup when it is given to them.” Customers raised the spoon “half an inch above the level of the jet-black liquid” to let the milk run back, and checked how thick it was before stirring. How the coffee shop compared with the hotel bar and its gin sling is in What Did People Drink in Old Singapore?

Our version

The article doesn’t say how the coffee was brewed, so the method here is ours: a strong pot of dark-roast coffee, steeped and strained. The beans of the region were mostly Liberica and robusta; a dark-roast robusta blend is closest, if you can find it. We have not found the cloth “sock” filter, or beans roasted with sugar and butter, in print before the 1940s, so they are not in this recipe. The 20 grams of condensed milk, about a tablespoon, is our amount. The article says nothing about the taste beyond “black.” For the working man’s cheap cup in Victorian England, the coffee shop’s counterpart there, try Coffee-Tavern Coffee at a Penny a Cup.

The milk must be on the spoon at the bottom of the cup when it is given to them. You can see them raise the spoon until it is half an inch above the level of the jet-black liquid and let the milk run back. The milk must be plentiful. Sweetened condensed milk is used.

Sunday Tribune (Singapore)September 3, 1933, p. 10

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Ingredients

For 1 cup, about 170 ml. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 1 cup, about 170 ml.

Dark-roast ground coffee15 g
Water170 ml
Sweetened condensed milk20 g

Ingredients as written here

15 g dark-roast ground coffee
170 ml water
20 g sweetened condensed milk

Equipment

Kettle
Coffee pot or jug
Fine strainer or coffee filter
Cup and spoon

Instructions

Bring the water to a boil.
Put the dark-roast ground coffee in the pot or jug, pour on the boiling water, stir once and let it steep for 4 minutes.
Spoon the sweetened condensed milk into the bottom of the cup and leave the spoon standing in it.
Pour the coffee through the strainer or filter into the cup, over the milk, without stirring.
Serve it as it is, and stir it yourself until the coffee turns a light brown.

Nutrition

70calories per serving

Recipe makes: 1 cup, about 170 ml

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central values for brewed coffee and sweetened condensed milk, for one cup with 20 g of milk.

Recipe notes

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the batch.

For black coffee, as the 1933 customers ordered their second cup, leave out the milk; it was two cents cheaper, about 15p today.

The coffee should be very strong; add more coffee rather than less water if it comes out pale.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; glassware, ice and timings need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.