Nanyang Butter Kopi C by Nan Yang Dao (Southeast Asian Butter Coffee with Evaporated Milk) compared with other butter coffees

I've tried a number of butter-themed coffees already, but they were all Western-style Arabica coffees. Now, what happens when you put butter into Southeast Asian coffee? Or nanyang kopi as they call it. This is what I tried at Nan Yang Dao. Just check out that melting slab of butter within the coffee. And as you can even see visually, it was a completely different experience from any of the Western butter coffees I tried (see below for the list of other butter coffees I reviewed). 
Nanyang Butter Kopi C by Nan Yang Dao - butter melting in coffee
The first thing to note in this comparison, is that nanyang coffee a very intense type of coffee using Robusta beans instead of Arabica, and it is roasted with butter or margarine (even before being crushed or brewed) to produce a darker caramelised taste. Then, to brew it, instead of the harsh espresso extraction process or the dainty drip coffee process that is popular in Japan, they flush boiling hot water multiple times through this long filter made of cloth, not paper, which we call a "sock". It becomes a super thick coffee concentrate, possibly the equivalent of espresso although I never tried it undiluted before. For the normal coffee concentration, they would top it up with boiling water before serving, but even then it tends to be much more intense than an americano or au lait, and possibly even thicker than a flat white. And you can order it at an even thicker concentration if you want a bolder coffee punch by telling them "gao" or "thick" in the local Chinese dialect. Want it even thicker? Tell them "gao gao". 
Nanyang Butter Kopi C by Nan Yang Dao
Specifically, I ordered a Butter Kopi C Kosong, which means nanyang coffee with evaporated milk, no sugar and a slab of butter. They even serve the butter separately so you can mix it in yourself and see that they didn't use syrup to flavour it. This is as pure as it gets. Even the evaporated milk they used is from the high quality brand King of Kings (when we observed them pouring it in the kitchen), which uses pure milk products and only adds soya lecithin and some stabilisers.

But before describing the experience, for reference, the other butter coffees I tried that I'll be referencing were Little Butter Latte (both hot and iced) and Little Butter Americano by Luckin Coffee, Bulletproof (Butter Americano with Coconut Oil) by Elephant Grounds, Buttercrème Latté by Zus Coffee and Buddy Apple Butter Latte (both hot and iced) also by Luckin Coffee. The Apple Butter Latte was not clearly a butter coffee because the cheese and apple flavours were intense and masked the butter flavour. The buttercreme latte by Zus was kind of like a toffee latte. The Little Butter coffees by Luckin had a clear popcorn butter flavour, and I especially loved the americano version, but it felt like they added some other flavour or syrups in due to some caramelised notes. The Bulletproof by Elephant Grounds was the purest where they just used pure butter, even without milk, but it also had coconut oil and overall was a super interesting experience, but not something I might order regularly. 

Now, back to this Nan Yang Dao version. It might seem a bit weird to melt the butter in yourself, because at first there's this layer of yellow butter oil at the top like in the first photo. But rest assured, it blends well into the hot coffee after stirring it well, such that you can barely notice it as super tiny and sparse froth-like oil drops if you look carefully, like in the photo below (click to enlarge to see the dark dots of oil more clearly). And this would also be the reason why this drink is only served hot, with no cold version available unlike at Luckin or Zus Coffee.
Nanyang Butter Kopi C by Nan Yang Dao - after mixing butter in
In terms of the taste, it totally hit all the right notes for me. It was intensely dark and nutty, with the natural notes of caramel and smoke from the nanyang robusta beans tickling the edges of my palate. The base of nanyang coffee by Nan Yang Dao is rich and of good quality, comparable to top local names such as Ya Kun.

The evaporated milk balanced the strong coffee with an equally strong creaminess. You can see from the shade of the coffee that, unlike Western milk coffees, the nanyang coffee remains quite a dark brown despite having a prominent creamy flavour due to the super thick evaporated milk in it. 

The butter's velvety notes of nuts and corn both enhance and bridges these complementary aspects of the milk and coffee, making these creamy, nutty and smooth dark notes pop that much more. So unlike butter-themed dessert drinks, the complexity comes from enhancement of similar or existing flavours and notes, not from adding a lot of other flavours such as toffee or apple.

The butter did not have salt that I noticed, although I wonder if using salted butter instead might be even better with the extra punch of salt. Sugar might be needed in that case to balance the salt though.

Overall, it was one of the richest true-blue coffee experiences I've had, despite being so natural and plain in the ingredients. I suppose I would rank it alongside top tier experiences such as % Arabica's latte or mocha, but this is a fraction of the cost at only around S$3.50.

Finally, just a quick note that if you leave the coffee standing before drinking, it forms a layer of milk skin like the tea scum if you leave milk tea standing, especially if you use evaporated milk. (This happens less for normal fresh milk.) So there's a dark brown layer that forms on top. But it wasn't an issue as I just used the spoon to skim it off before drinking. I don't have a photo of it though, unfortunately.

Verdict of Comparisons

This take on butter coffee is in sharp contrast to the direction of dessert-like sweet drinks that Western style milk coffees take, such as Luckin's or Zus Coffee's. 

Nan Yang Dao's is more natural, complex and "adult" in that sense, more suited to the gourmet connoisseur's palate, and closer to the Bulletproof version, but a lot more velvety, easier to the palate and accessible to the regular coffee drinker. As mentioned, I would compare the merits of the experience to something like % Arabica's mocha or latte. (Not their sweet Spanish latte though.) I also absolutely loved that they served the butter 

So if you want to try butter coffee and dislike dessert drinks, this would be my top recommendation. 

If you still prefer a sweeter, more dessert-like experience, but with strong coffee, I think this might still work if you ordered the coffee with regular sugar, or the regular version with sweetened condensed milk. 

But if you prefer a cleaner or lighter taste of Western brews, then Luckin's Little Butter Americano is still better, Nanyang coffee is really thick and heavy on the coffee notes.

If you love full-on sweet dessert drinks and don't care so much about the coffee's taste or strength, then the Little Butter Latte by Luckin or Buttercreme Latte by Zus is still your best bet.

If I had Nan Yang Dao near my home, it's something I can foresee ordering on a regular basis.

Discover other Southeast Asia coffee-inspired treats

Comments

Post a Comment