Coffee shops since the 1930s were popular places for social and business gatherings. It was the Hainanese who, working as cooks for the British, first learnt the art of brewing coffee and improvised to suit locals’ taste buds. Coffee beans were fried with other ingredients such as butter and corn before grinding into powder in the back alleys of coffee shops using a coffee-grinder. Coffee has since become a common beverage especially among the labourers who needed to perk up.
