It comes from the Cantonese for mix. The drink's older name is yuenyeung, after the mandarin duck - a bird whose male and female look so different that the word came to mean a mismatched pair that belongs together, which is the point of combining coffee with tea.

Is Malaysian cham the same as Hong Kong yuenyeung?

They share an idea rather than a recipe. Hong Kong yuenyeung uses local coffee and milk tea and is less sweet. Malaysian kopi cham is built on Nanyang coffee, strong black tea and condensed milk, which makes it sweeter, milkier and noticeably fuller.

What is the right coffee-to-tea ratio?

There is no standard one, which is unusual. Shops vary it and so do brands. Because the ratio decides whether the product reads as a coffee or as a milk tea, it is treated as a positioning decision settled at sampling rather than a technical default.

Why can cham powder taste gritty when coffee powder does not?

Tea tannins bind with milk proteins, which can produce haze or a fine sediment once reconstituted. It passes unnoticed in a freshly brewed cup but shows up in an instant powder, so it is addressed in the formula rather than accepted.

Can two flavours be combined in one product?

Yes, and most launches do. Pairings such as mango with passionfruit, or black sesame with oat, are common in powder formats. The blend is worked out at sampling stage against your target retail price, because the ratio moves the cost as well as the taste.

How does the sampling stage work?

A brief goes to the R&D lab, which produces a bench sample for you to taste and adjust. Revisions are normal and expected, because taste targets are easier to describe by comparison than in words. Only once the sample is signed off does the formula, the pack format and the documentation get fixed.

Will my product be classified as a food or as a health supplement?

The claim decides it, not the format. A powder sold as a drink is a food under the Food Act 1983. The moment it carries a health claim or a therapeutic dose it falls to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency, which requires product registration before sale. Settle this before artwork, because it changes the label.

Which pack format should I choose?

Sachets and stick packs suit single servings, trial sizes and e-commerce, because the dose is fixed and the barrier protects the powder. Jars suit repeat home use. Bulk suits a brand doing its own filling. Hygroscopic flavours, which draw moisture from the air, are better in a sealed sachet than in a jar that is opened daily.

Coffee · Malaysian

OEM Cham Powder Manufacturer in Malaysia

Also known as Kopi cham

OEM & private label kopi cham powder - coffee and milk tea in one blend, Halal manufactured in sachet, stick pack or bulk for your brand.

What is cham, and where did mixing coffee with tea start?

Cham is coffee blended with milk tea in one cup. The drink began in Hong Kong as yuenyeung, served at dai pai dong street stalls and cha chaan teng cafés, and travelled into Malaysian kopitiam culture where it is ordered as kopi cham.

Yuenyeung) is named after the mandarin duck, a bird whose male and female look so unalike that the word came to mean a pair of mismatched things that belong together. That is the drink: two beverages that should compete, held in balance. In Malaysia the Cantonese name gave way to cham, from the Cantonese for mix, and the drink settled into the kopitiam order list beside kopi and teh.

The Malaysian version is built on local materials - Nanyang coffee on one side, strong teh tarik style black tea on the other, condensed or evaporated milk holding them together. It is sweeter and milkier than the Hong Kong original, which is why the two taste noticeably different despite sharing a name.

For a brand, cham is a category with almost no shelf competition. Coffee and milk tea both have crowded instant aisles; the drink that combines them does not.

What does cham (coffee + tea) taste like?

Sweet and milky, with tea tannin cutting through coffee roast so neither dominates. It tastes fuller than coffee and more savoury than milk tea, with a slightly drying finish from the tea that stops it being cloying.

Character	Level	Why
Sweetness	High	Built on condensed or evaporated milk in the kopitiam tradition.
Bitterness	Medium	Coffee roast and tea tannin both contribute, but milk and sugar hold them in check.
Roast	Medium	Nanyang coffee is present but shares the cup with tea rather than leading it.
Creaminess	High	Milk is what makes the pairing work; without it the two sides clash.
Aroma	Medium	Each side mutes the other, so the aroma is rounder and less distinct than either alone.

Indicative flavour positioning to help write a product brief. It is not sensory panel data, and the finished taste is set with you at sampling stage.

What has to be decided to make cham as a powder?

The ratio, and then whether the two sides can be processed together at all. Coffee extract and tea extract behave differently in a powder, and the balance that works freshly brewed does not automatically survive instantisation.

The ratio is the product. Too much coffee and it is a milk coffee; too much tea and the roast vanishes. Unlike most flavours, there is no single correct answer here - the balance is a brand positioning decision made at sampling, not a technical default.
Tea tannin and milk protein interact. Tannins bind with milk proteins, which affects mouthfeel and can produce haze or sediment. In a fresh cup it is unnoticeable; in a reconstituted powder it is the difference between smooth and gritty.
Two extracts means two sourcing chains. Coffee and tea come from different suppliers with different Halal documentation and different harvest variability, which doubles the raw-material work behind a single sachet.
Colour sets the expectation. Cham should read as neither black coffee nor pale milk tea. If the reconstituted colour is wrong the drink is judged before it is tasted.

What are the Halal risk points in a cham powder?

The milk component and the emulsifier. Whether the formula uses milk powder, evaporated milk solids or non-dairy creamer, each brings its own documentation chain, and mono- and diglycerides (E471) can be plant or animal derived under one ingredient name.

Because cham carries two extract systems, the ingredient list is longer than for a single-origin drink and there are simply more places for an undocumented material to enter. Flavour systems carried in ethanol are worth checking as well: the finished powder may contain almost none, but certification assesses what enters the plant.

D&O manufactures under JAKIM Halal certification to MS 1500, and every raw material on a Halal-certified line carries its own valid certificate. The common failure points are set out in Top 10 Ingredients That Fail Halal Certification.

Which pack formats suit cham (coffee + tea) powder?

Sachet, stick pack, jar or bulk. The format is chosen with the formula rather than after it, because it decides how the powder is protected from moisture and how the buyer meets the product.

Format	What it suits
Sachet	Single-serve 3-in-1 style. The standard for a drink people meet at a kopitiam and want to repeat at home.
Stick pack	Office and travel packs, where cham's novelty value does well in a multi-flavour bundle.
Jar	Repeat home use, though a two-extract powder is more sensitive to repeated opening than a single-origin one.
Bulk	Kopitiam and food service supply, and brands filling their own sachets.

Where is this manufactured, and under what certification?

At D&O Nutraceutical Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd. in Lahat, Perak, Malaysia — six factory units certified Halal by JAKIM (MS 1500), GMP to MS 1514:2022 (SIRIM QAS, cert. GMP 00203), HACCP to MS 1480:2019 (SIRIM QAS, cert. HACCP 00425), ISO 22000 (SIRIM QAS, cert. FSMS 00229) and MeSTI (Ministry of Health, cert. ME0523069-0/1).

The plant is outside Ipoh, between Kuala Lumpur and Penang, with road access to both Port Klang and Penang Port for export. Four units are used for production and two for packing and assembly, 4,000 sq ft each.

D&O is the powder functional food manufacturer of ORIZI Group. Liquid and ready-to-drink formats are made by Nutrizens Wellness Sdn. Bhd.; cosmetics, skincare and personal care by Dr Orizi; medical devices by Skyler and Imedify.

Certificates and their certified scope are supplied on request. JAKIM Halal certification is verifiable in the MYeHALAL directory, MeSTI in the Ministry of Health FoSIM system, and the GMP, HACCP and ISO 22000 certificates with SIRIM QAS International. The MS standards themselves are published by Standards Malaysia, and ISO 22000 by ISO.

Where this flavour is produced

Cham (coffee + tea) sits in the Coffee Powder line. The full list of instant beverage & dessertflavours D&O has produced is in the flavour library.

Frequently asked questions

What does cham mean?: It comes from the Cantonese for mix. The drink's older name is yuenyeung, after the mandarin duck - a bird whose male and female look so different that the word came to mean a mismatched pair that belongs together, which is the point of combining coffee with tea.
Is Malaysian cham the same as Hong Kong yuenyeung?: They share an idea rather than a recipe. Hong Kong yuenyeung uses local coffee and milk tea and is less sweet. Malaysian kopi cham is built on Nanyang coffee, strong black tea and condensed milk, which makes it sweeter, milkier and noticeably fuller.
What is the right coffee-to-tea ratio?: There is no standard one, which is unusual. Shops vary it and so do brands. Because the ratio decides whether the product reads as a coffee or as a milk tea, it is treated as a positioning decision settled at sampling rather than a technical default.
Why can cham powder taste gritty when coffee powder does not?: Tea tannins bind with milk proteins, which can produce haze or a fine sediment once reconstituted. It passes unnoticed in a freshly brewed cup but shows up in an instant powder, so it is addressed in the formula rather than accepted.
Can two flavours be combined in one product?: Yes, and most launches do. Pairings such as mango with passionfruit, or black sesame with oat, are common in powder formats. The blend is worked out at sampling stage against your target retail price, because the ratio moves the cost as well as the taste.
How does the sampling stage work?: A brief goes to the R&D lab, which produces a bench sample for you to taste and adjust. Revisions are normal and expected, because taste targets are easier to describe by comparison than in words. Only once the sample is signed off does the formula, the pack format and the documentation get fixed.
Will my product be classified as a food or as a health supplement?: The claim decides it, not the format. A powder sold as a drink is a food under the Food Act 1983. The moment it carries a health claim or a therapeutic dose it falls to the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency, which requires product registration before sale. Settle this before artwork, because it changes the label.
Which pack format should I choose?: Sachets and stick packs suit single servings, trial sizes and e-commerce, because the dose is fixed and the barrier protects the powder. Jars suit repeat home use. Bulk suits a brand doing its own filling. Hygroscopic flavours, which draw moisture from the air, are better in a sealed sachet than in a jar that is opened daily.

Get a Free Sample of Your Own Product

Tell us what you want to make — the taste or effect, your target retail price, the pack format and rough monthly volume. We come back with a costing and a free bench sample made to your brief, not a stock product. Halal OEM manufacturing in Perak, Malaysia, in sachet, stick pack, jar or bulk.

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