Today’s Jellyriffic “Get Your Jelly On” Challenge entry will give you a real kick!

White Coffee Konnyaku

Yesterday’s Sirap Selasih Konnyaku Recipe was all about taking a favorite drink and jellifying it. With today’s White Coffee Konnyaku, we’re going old school…or should I say “Old Town”, as in Ipoh.

The Original Old Town Ipoh White Coffee Shop

Whenever we visited Peninsular Malaysia, we were always either in KL or Penang. I had not really explored the town of Ipoh before, even though I had heard lots of good things about the food there. About a year ago, Annie and I took a short trip to Ipoh and recruited one of her friends, who was from Ipoh, to show us around.

(Ipoh also happens to be the hometown of Billy, one of the other 10 bloggers involved with the Jellyriffic Challenge!)

Of course, we had the famous Ipoh kai hor fun (chicken with rice noodle soup) with taugeh (beansprouts), dim sum, chicken rice, and salt-baked chicken. (All of which I really need to blog about…) Then she took us into “Old Town" Ipoh, where most of the shophouses date back to the early 20th Century, for some white coffee.

Ipoh is known for its “white coffee” which is made from coffee beans roasted in margarine and sweetened with condensed milk. It is served in coffeeshops all over Ipoh. There is a very popular food franchise called “Old Town White Coffee” which is responsible for commercializing white coffee and introducing it all over Malaysia. But they did not invent white coffee.

The original coffeeshop which birthed white coffee is Kedai Kopi Sin Yoon Loong in Old Town Ipoh. It is a humble little shop, with a small menu board offering little else besides coffee, tea, and toast. But it is always crowded and always doing brisk business.

Here are a couple of reviews by Yue Pik Kong and Eat With Roy .

Kedai Kopi Sin Yoon Loong Storefront and Menu

And here is my iced white coffee. It was good! Smooth and sweet, not dark or bitter. I very quickly sucked it down.

Iced White Coffee

Fast Forward

Coming back to the present, when we were brainstorming ideas for the Royal Selangor Jellyriffic Challenge, we started thinking about jellifying our favorite drinks like soymilk-cincau and sirap selasih. One idea that popped in my head was to make a white coffee jelly. But we don’t normally drink coffee at home and don’t keep coffee grounds in the cupboards.

Help came in the form of these convenient “3-in-1” coffee packets that are popular around here. Each packet contains instant coffee, creamer, and sugar for one serving. It made making the jelly a snap!

White Coffee Konnyaku Recipe

Prep time: 10 mins / Total time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

3 packets “3-in-1” white coffee instant coffee powder
4 grams konnyaku powder
400 ml boiling-hot water

Method

1. Pour out 3 packets’ worth of instant coffee powder into a large bowl.

2. Add the konnyaku powder and stir it to evenly distribute.

White Coffee Powder and Konnyaku

3. Add the boiling water. Whisk to fully incorporate.

4. Pour into the jelly moulds and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight to set.

Pouring White Coffee

I made some freshly whipped cream and spooned a couple of large dollops onto the plate before taking the coffee jelly out of the mould and then placing it on the plate. Served it with a vanilla cream biscuit on the side.

White Coffee Konnyaku

This “3-in-1” packet coffee wasn’t as good as the original white coffee from Ipoh, but the whipped cream and biscuit helped to smooth out the flavors a bit. Using the packet was much easier than brewing my own coffee from ground beans. But I wonder if the taste could be even better brewing my own white coffee?

I’d like to see you dear readers try it out. It’s easy, and fun! Purchase a jelly mould from Royal Selangor – the proceeds go towards supporting the Breast Cancer Welfare Association of Malaysia, and enter to win your own Olympus Pen Lite E-PL3 camera (open to Malaysian customers only, I’m afraid). Just watch out that you don’t take this White Coffee jelly too close to bedtime or you’ll find yourself too wired to sleep!

Aloha, Nate

Higher rates of mortality among breast cancer patients in Malaysia is attributed to lack of breast cancer awareness amongst women, resulting in them seeing their doctor at a later stage. To improve the chance of cure, the disease should be diagnosed as early as possible. For more information, please visit the Breast Health Information Centre Facts & Stats page.