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Old TownWhite Coffee sachets being sold
abroad at Asian mini markets.
As I drove by Ipoh’s Old Town, I
couldn’t help but notice a striking feature
about it. All the major British colonial
architecture such as the railway station
(known as Ipoh’s Taj Mahal), the town hall
and St. Michael’s Institution, among other
well preserved colonial buildings, all share
the same white hue. I strongly believe that
the parallelismbetween the white century
old buildings and white coffee aren’t just
a mere coincidence.
New hipster cafes may be mushroom-
ing all over Ipoh, but nothing can replace
the charm and nostalgia of savouring a
freshly brewed cup from the Old Town.
I may not have found treasure in the tin
mines, but I certainly found treasure in
savouring Ipoh’s finest drink.
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in China, they left him to run the coffee
business. Today, theWongs own two other
kopitiams – one on Jalan Bandar Hara and
the other in Bandar Utama, Kuala Lumpur.
Funny enough, nobody in the family is
named Sin Yoon Loong andWong couldn’t
provide me with an answer as to why his
father chose this name for his shop.
Over at Nam Heong I ordered my
second cuppa. I honestly have to say that
both coffees were just as good. Even if you
pointed a knife at me, I simply couldn’t
choose a favourite as both coffees were
simply divine. To complement my coffee, I
ordered an egg tart and was lucky enough
to be served one that was fresh from the
oven. Talk about perfect timing!
Taking a bite into the tart, I could feel
the flaky crust and silky, creamy centre
dancing in my mouth. It was one of the
best egg tarts that I had ever eaten. Mu
Kar King, nephew to the owner of Nam
Heong who shared their coffee secrets
with me, said that white coffee is the
purest of coffees as roasting only involves
margarine and a tad bit of sugar and salt.
Apparently, traditional black coffee gets
its bitterness from using too much sugar
in the roasting process. Arabica, Liberica
and Robusta are the coffee beans the folks
over at Nam Heong use to produce their
finest white coffee.
I have visited many Old Town White
Coffee joints before, but little did I know
that this nationwide franchise stemmed
from Nam Heong itself. In 1958, Mu’s
grandfather humbly sold coffee powder
to locals and not long after that, his son
opened Nam Heong. The legacy contin-
ued, in 1999whenMu’s cousin opened the
famous Old TownWhite Coffee kopitiams
around the country. You can even find the