Phuket Old Town — Hokkien Kopi,
Cafés in the Shophouses

This is the coffee at the root of Phuket Old Town — kopi, the style Hokkien Chinese brought more than a century ago. The beans are roasted dark with sugar and sometimes butter or margarine, brewed by straining through a cloth sock, and poured over sweet condensed milk in the bottom of the glass. The result is strong, fragrant and creamy-sweet, like the kopi of Penang and Singapore. You order it at traditional kopitiams that are part coffee shop, part breakfast spot. Drinking it hot with patongko (fried dough) or kaya toast in the morning is how Phuket locals have always taken it.

The specialty scene in Phuket Old Town has grown a lot in the past decade. Many cafés in the old buildings use light-to-medium-roast arabica, some roasting it themselves on site, serving espresso, pour-over and milk drinks that bring out the bean's character. Plenty use Thai beans from the northern highlands, whose quality has risen sharply. It's a completely different style from old-school kopi — clean, with the fruit and acidity of the bean at the front, brewed with care. Good for anyone who wants a quality cup in a beautiful high-ceilinged building.

The real charm of the area is the buildings — narrow, deep Sino-Portuguese shophouses with high ceilings, folding doors and old tiles, restored and opened as cafés. Some keep all the original furniture and fittings, so it feels like sitting in an old Baba family home; others blend modern design into the old shell. The light through the louvred windows and the courtyards in the middle of each building make them photogenic and full of atmosphere. This is the main reason people choose to sit at a café here over anywhere else.

Beyond coffee, Phuket Old Town is known for dessert — especially the homemade ice cream at Torry's Ice Cream, a small shop in the old quarter making local flavours like coconut, Thai tea and seasonal fruit, dense and just sweet enough, the thing to grab to cool off mid-walk. Many cafés also serve Baba-style and local sweets alongside the coffee — khanom mo kaeng (baked mung-bean custard), o-aew (an iced jelly dessert) and homemade cakes. An afternoon sweet with a coffee, in the island's heat, is the way to do it.

Several cafés in Phuket Old Town don't just sell coffee — they double as a gallery, a bookshop or a craft space. Bookhemian, for instance, is a specialty café that's also a bookshop and a place that shows art. That mix suits an old quarter where a lot of artists and creative people have set up shop. Sipping a coffee while you look at art or open a book is a slow way to spend an afternoon, different from an ordinary café — and another reason the area appeals to anyone who likes an arty atmosphere.

If you want a cold drink on the cheap while you wander, the street stalls in the old quarter do Thai iced tea, oliang (iced black coffee), iced kopi, fresh fruit juice and bubble tea for far less than a café. On Sunday evening, Thalang Road turns into the Lard Yai walking street, with food and drink stalls down the whole road — the liveliest moment of the week. Graze your way along for old-style kopi, sweets and local snacks. Good if you want the feel of the old quarter without sitting down at a café.

A drink that sums up the roots of Phuket Old Town in a single glass — beans roasted dark with sugar and sometimes butter, brewed by straining through a cloth sock, poured over sweet condensed milk waiting in the bottom of the glass. Stir it together before you sip: it's strong, fragrant and creamy-sweet, like the kopi of Penang and Singapore. Ordered hot with patongko or kaya toast at a kopitiam in the morning, it's the way Phuket's Hokkien-Chinese have drunk coffee for a hundred years. Order it iced on a hot day.

The signature of the specialty cafés in Phuket Old Town — a pour-over from arabica beans, many of them Thai beans from the northern highlands, whose quality has risen sharply. Roasted light to medium to bring out the fruit and the sweet-tart acidity of the bean, brewed by hand a cup at a time. Served hot or iced, it's clean, bright and more layered than old-style kopi. If you get to sit at a specialty café in a pretty old building, this is the cup to order to set against a kopi.

The old quarter's go-to dessert to beat the heat. The homemade ice cream at Torry's Ice Cream comes in many flavours, including local ones like coconut, Thai tea and seasonal fruit, dense and just sweet enough rather than over-sugared. It's good to grab while you photograph the old buildings on a hot day. Order it as a scoop on its own or with a coffee. It's a simple dessert that says Phuket through its coconut and Thai-tea flavours, and a popular stop in the quarter.

Phuket has local sweets that are hard to find elsewhere, above all o-aew — a clear iced jelly made from a local seed, served over shaved ice with syrup and red beans, a cooling dessert that's a signature of the island. There are also Baba-style and other local sweets that cafés and stalls in the old quarter serve alongside coffee. A cold o-aew after walking in the sun, or a local sweet with a hot kopi in the afternoon, is how you eat the real Phuket — something an ordinary café can't give you.