Taste the Café Cultures of the World in Singapore

Singapore’s café culture had its humble beginnings in the kopitiam (coffee shop). Around since the 1800s, the early kopitiams were no more than makeshift stalls or wooden carts set up in the streets, villages, and plantations to serve drinks, snacks, and sometimes warm meals to the migrant population.

Today, if you want a cuppa, you will be spoilt for choice. Not only has the kopitiam of old endured, the melting pot that is this little red dot has embraced the café cultures of the world. Here is the roadmap to navigating the global café cultures that have found their place in Singapore (and your stomachs) in the last 50 years.

Try the Traditional Kopitiam for a taste of yesteryear

The heartland and food courts are awash with them. But if you want to experience old-style Singapore kopitiam and be assured of consistent quality, Toast Boxand Ya Kun Kaya Toastchains are your picks. Both are modernised versions of the local coffee shop and offer coffees and teas the way grandpa and grandma enjoyed them as well as the traditional local breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast with kaya (coconut egg jam). A minor difference between the two is that Ya Kun’s kaya toast is thinner and more crisp, a style perfected by its founder Loi Ah Koon.

For an authentic experience, have breakfast there and make sure to order the brews served with condensed milk. That is how Nanyang (as Southeast Asia used to be called) coffee is best enjoyed.

Say Oui to the French Café

The Parisian café has been the centre of social and culinary life since it first appeared in the 1700s. There, people sipped grande crème (large cup of white coffee) or espressos (small concentrated cup of black coffee) and watched the world go by. Apart from providing a caffeine fix, these cafés also offered wine and full meals.

For reasons unknown, some of the French-styled cafés in Singapore today are Asian-run. Miam Miam and St Marc Café, for example, are headquartered in Japan while Paris Baguette is part of a top Korean bakery chain with 3,500 outlets worldwide. For a taste of Parisian café culture without the need to board a plane, Miam Miamoffers Hot Café Au Lait (steamed milk with coffee) and light-as-air Valrhona Chocolate Soufflé baked to a golden brown and with topped with rich, quality, melted chocolate.

At St Marc Café, the ubiquitous croissant comes filled with molten hazelnut chocolate made with cocoa beans from Ghana. Called Chococro, the café’s signature pastry is buttery, flaky, and oozing with bittersweet goodness - the perfect snack to go with the fresh brewed coffee that is prepared only when you order it.

Paris Baguetteis known for its French pastries, breads, cakes, and sandwiches. Bite into their Fruit Pastry – layers of flaky puff pastry topped with a riot of tangy fruit - and you might be forgiven for thinking you are in the City of Lights itself.

The Affable American-inspired Coffee Joint

Thanks to Starbucks, modern coffee culture is dominated by American-style coffee chains featuring self-service coffees, teas, ice-blended drinks and sandwiches for quick, easy fixes. In Singapore, we have embraced these chains with such enthusiasm that many more from other countries have come to set up shop here.

Jamaica Blueprides itself on its brew. Its coffee is made from beans from the Blue Mountain region of Jamaica which produces one of the most sought after and expensive coffees in the world. Apart from deli food like sandwiches, wraps, and salads, this café also an impressive menu that includes savoury tarts, pies, soups, pastas, risottos, and seafood dishes.

One of the United Kingdom’s largest and fastest growing coffee chains, Costa Coffee, still slow roasts their beans the way their founder, Sergio Costa, and his brother Bruno did when they started out in 1971 London. The café specialises in espressos and its variants such as cappuccino (espresso with hot milk and steamed milk foam), macchiato (espresso with a little milk), and americano (hot water added to espresso). Sandwiches, wraps, and cakes complete the meal.

Taking to Themed Cafés

As a reflection of our hunger for new-fangled dining experiences, themed cafés have sprouted up here in recent years. St Games Caféis where you can play video games while snacking. At The Mind Café, you can play board games while you have a complete meal. For dog lovers, the We are the Furballslets you interact with man’s best friend without having to commit to ownership. The petting café offers their own dogs for you to play with. Each session comes with a complimentary dink though this is a strictly above-12-only place and no other pets are allowed. In all these concept cafés, it is the social aspect that takes centrestage.

The kopitiam that was the mainstay of Singapore’s café culture has since made room for many more types of cafes. In just 50 years, the world’s cafés have come to make Singapore their home. Now, that’s something to drink to in this year of Singapore’s 50th!

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