Cambodian iced coffee vs Thai oliang
Two neighbouring iced coffees built on the same idea — roast something cheap in with the beans — that arrive at almost opposite drinks.
In short
Cambodian iced coffee and Thai oliang start from the same idea and arrive at nearly opposite drinks. Order one expecting the other and the surprise is immediate.
The shared idea is in the roast. The difference is what each country chose to put there, and whether milk is part of the drink at all.
Roasting something in with the beans
CoffeeHQ explanation
Both traditions roast other ingredients together with the coffee and treat the result as one ingredient. The reasoning is economic and sensible: if coffee is expensive, and the drink is going to be iced and sweetened in any case, something cheaper can share the roast.
Neither country appears to have taken the idea from the other. They reached for different things. The idea is not confined to these two, either: the kopi of Malaysia and Singapore is made from beans wok-roasted with sugar and margarine, and brewed through the same kind of cloth sock.
Grain and seed, or grain and fat
Widely documented
- Thailand
- Corn, soybean and sesame, sometimes rice and cardamom. No fat. The brew is lighter and cleaner in the finish.
- Cambodia
- Vegetable fat or butter, with soybean, corn and often chicory. The fat is the unusual part. It survives the ice and the milk and gives the drink a thick, mouth-coating weight.
Built on milk, or defined by its absence
Widely documented
Cambodian iced coffee is built from the bottom of the glass up on sweetened condensed milk, which goes in before the coffee. It is structural and not optional, and all of the drink's sweetness comes from it.
Oliang in its classic form is black. It is sweetened with sugar dissolved into the brew and poured over crushed ice. Adding milk does not make a milky oliang; it makes a different order with a different name.
What arrives when you order each
Widely documented
A Cambodian iced coffee comes as a tall glass with a pale layer of condensed milk at the bottom and dark coffee over ice above it, to be stirred before drinking. It is sweet, thick and rich, and the roast gives it a faintly buttery, toasted depth that milk alone does not explain.
An oliang comes black over crushed ice, already sweetened. It is lighter and more refreshing, with a toasted-grain note from the corn and sesame in the roast. If you want it with milk, that is a separate order under another name; asking for oliang gets you the black drink.
How each is brewed and carried away
Widely documented
Oliang is brewed through a cloth sock filter. Cambodian coffee is made with a phin metal drip filter or with a cloth sock. Both are served in a tall glass, and at street level both are sold in a knotted plastic bag with a straw for carrying away.
On caffeine there is no figure to give for either. Robusta raises it and the grain in the roast lowers it, and the proportions of the blends are not published, so the two effects partly cancel by an unknown amount.
What to do next
- Cambodian iced coffee in the atlas — The fat in the roast and the condensed-milk build, with what the sources do not record.
- Thai oliang in the atlas — The grain blend, the sock filter and the related orders that add milk.
- Vietnamese phin coffee — The neighbouring tradition that shares the filter and the condensed milk.
- South and Southeast Asian coffee culture — The regional setting these street coffees belong to.
At a glance
| Aspect | Cambodian iced coffee (kafe tuk doh ko) | Thai oliang |
|---|---|---|
| What goes into the roast | Vegetable fat or butter, soybean, corn, often chicory — and the fat is the unusual part | Corn, soybean, sesame, sometimes rice and cardamom. No fat |
| Filtration | A phin metal drip filter, or a cloth sock | A cloth sock (tung dtom kaffe) |
| Milk | Sweetened condensed milk in the glass before the coffee — structural, not optional | None in the classic form. Oliang is black; adding milk makes it a different order |
| Sweetening | Entirely from the condensed milk | Sugar dissolved into the brew |
| Body | Thick and mouth-coating, from the roast fat as much as from the milk | Lighter, and cleaner in the finish |
| Service | A tall glass, or a knotted plastic bag with a straw for carrying away | A tall glass over crushed ice, or the same plastic-bag service at street level |
| Caffeine | Robusta raises it, the grain in the roast lowers it, and the proportions are unpublished — so no figure | The same two effects, partly cancelling, and the same absence of a figure |