Coffee Bun Kopi Roti Review
April 1, 2007 by dragon
Being a certified (by myself) coffee lover, I can down 5 cups of coffee in a day without getting palpitations or without affecting my sleep. My insomnia is a different thing altogether.
About three years ago, a friend who was frequently in Singapore wanted to franchise RotiBoy's coffee bun business but those Boys never got back to her. These buns originated in Singapore, with the brands Papa Roti, Roti Boy, and RotiMum, which came later.
ROTIMUM. Last early February, old friend Emil called out to me from out of nowhere within SM Megamall Bldng A to invite me to their February opening of their Singapore franchise RotiMum. Unfortunately, I was in Hong Kong at the time of their opening, but found time to visit their store afterwards.
Their buns started out in secret dough mix as shown on the right picture above, and when the dough rises somewhat, secret coffee cream recipe is swirled around and readied for final baking. The result, the coffee bun picture seen on the left, with dripping crust suspended in oven baked delight! (don’t mind the chopped chef body on the picture)
I eventually went back for return trips to purchase their yummy 40 peso buns. I noticed that the lines got unusually thinner after only a month of operation. The coffee bun experience was unusual, as you feel the difference when biting into the top semi crunchy coffee crust. The dough rose just enough to give the bun a not too heavy wallop for its size. The inside had a dash of semi salted butter. All they sold in that store were these buns. No sit-downs, no coffee, no water! At one visit, I even saw one of the Singaporean franchise owners discarding some unacceptably over-baked buns.
KOPIROTI. They literally took the word coffee bun into their name. My wife told me those buns were available in Kopiroti Tomas 
Morato, Quezon City for a long time now, so I decided to drop by. The place was too small, and can't be noticed in a casual drive by. But a lot of customers frequent their tightly arranged place at night. I was not there for their french toast or other selections, I immediately ordered their coffee and coffee bun package. The bun alone cost 35 pesos, I forgot how much their complete package cost.
The appearance of the bun gave you an impression that the darker looking crust will give more coffee taste. Unfortunately, the coffee taste of both the bun and the coffee drink were too bitter for my palate. The crust of the bun was even too crunchy and flaked off and crumbled in every bite. Think crunchy Holy Communion Host, think Haw Flakes. Its that texture.
The bread inside gave you more bread and dough than RotiMum's, in the sense that it probably cost more ingredients per kilogram than RotiMum's because the bun did not rise efficiently enough. This bun would no doubt be heavier than RotiMum's. I know these things because we used to have a bakeshop. . . The coffee drink itself was too "barako" bitter for my taste. Perhaps since its a Filipino brand, it was developed for the Filipino Taste?
My second visit to KopiRoti gave a different type of bun, raising my eyebrows that quality control was not too strictly observed here. The crust was less crumbly and less bitter, which were okay for me, but the overall creamy coffee taste was still missing.
Delifrance Coffee Bun Meeting at Makati Delifrance. Lo and Behold, they had coffee buns as well! What the heck, might as well try this one as well.
Hola! If only buns could talk, this one would say its a relative of RotiMum's. The overall soft and not too flaky crustiness, the aptly risen dough, and the not too salty butter tells me I will come back for a second round some day.
Taken with their smoothly brewed coffee, this experience pushes KopiRoti to a far third in ranking. I've yet to try BreadTalk's coffee bun.
coffee bun sources:
Dessert Comes first
Kutitots
Pageman's Blog
Rotimum Philippines
Caffeine is my first love, my record was 9 cups per day. but that was not the reason i’m Rotiboy’s fan. I love rotiboy because of its uniqueness of taste and aroma. Recently, i was in manila and came across the “self-proclaimed-mama & papa” of Rotiboy selling at 40 peso. To my surprise, Rotimum actually used the newspaper article as their marketing tool “rated best bun in SIngapore”. Shame on them ! I was in singapore then, when the rotiboy trend was the talking of the town, and everyone knew that there were tonnes of write up about rotiboy in the media and out of no where, this rating came up by a journalist. A group of my friend actually joked about it, thinking how much rotimum paid for this rating ! anyone who followed this wave of rotiboy would agree with me that there were no second to Rotiboy. what is more hilarious was the sales persons would say that they are similar to ROtiboy. oh c’mon.. this is totally unfair. I wonder when Rotiboy is coming to manila.. and i don’t mind paying higher for rotiboy..