Vietnamese coffee

Judy. We have been to many countries that have a coffee culture. But I have never seen anything like the way the Vietnamese drink coffee! For years, one of my favorite iced coffees was what’s known in the States as Vietnamese coffee—iced coffee with condensed milk—yum! In Thailand, I tried to order it, but just got coffee with milk, or iced latte. 

But here—oh, my goodness! Yes, you can get “coffee with (condensed) milk,” but you can also get coconut coffee, salt coffee, egg coffee, even avocado coffee! I’m sure there are more! I’ve tried several of these. 

However, it starts way before all the flavors are added. The coffee here will knock you over, it’s so strong. In this country, they grow more robusta than arabica coffee. Robusta has far more caffeine, and is a dark, rich bean. The acidic soil here contributes to that; furthermore, it’s dark roasted, per the French (who were here for years). And true traditional Vietnamese coffee uses a special metal filter, called a phin filter, for each cup. 

Phin

Most of the flavored coffees are really sweet, and all use at least some condensed milk. That all started with the French, when milk was not only scarce, but spoiled quickly in the heat. 

Salt coffee started and is most popular in the city of Hue. It’s often iced, and is served with salted vegetable fat cream, condensed milk, and often, sugar. The salt cuts the bitterness of the coffee, and the end result tastes very much like salted caramel. It was good, but a bit sweet for me. 

Salt coffee, courtesy the internet

Egg coffee is out of this world—it tastes like coffee ice cream! An egg yolk is blended with condensed milk, sugar and vanilla are added, then the coffee carefully poured so that the froth rises to the top. Very rich, and hard to finish a whole cup. It originated in Hanoi.

Egg coffee--but most of the fancy coffees look like this!

I found coconut coffee (also often iced) to be delicious, and easiest to enjoy. Condensed milk is blended with coconut cream, and added to the coffee.

 

Coconut coffee, courtesy the internet

An up and coming flavor is avocado coffee—I’ve not tried that yet. Yogurt coffee is also sometimes touted. Both of these also use condensed milk. 

Avocado coffee, courtesy the internet

Recipes for any of them can be found on the internet, and, with the right coffee, are worth a try. 

It took us a couple of days to realize that Cà Phê is cafe!

Cà Phê, and you can see, they use a phin

My favorite, though, is at a little coffee shop, library, and classical music shop around the corner called Nich Tranh. 

A quiet coffee shop around the corner from our hotel

The making of "real" coffee

The owner serves very few versions of coffee, and takes it very seriously. Instead of the metal phin filter, he has a small paper filter for each cup. When he brings it to the table, he first pours a tiny bit of water in the coffee, so that the coffee “blooms”, then tells you to wait one to two minutes before pouring the rest of the water. He also brings two small glasses with ice (this is NOT a big serving), should you want iced cofee, and, if you like, a small pitcher of condensed milk to pour into the finished brew. To add to the experience, he plays classical music. You can sit outside on the patio, or inside in the library. It is a sweet, quiet, and special few moments. Today we told the owner about trying egg coffee. He made a face and shook his head. "Egg coffee is from Hanoi. Salt coffee is from Hue. Here, we make real coffee."