Vietnamese coffee drinks

Iced coffee with condensed milk

Cà phê sữa đá

Vietnam’s signature coffee: a strong phin over condensed milk, then onto ice. Condensed milk makes robusta softer and sweeter; the ice cools you down in the heat.

1. Pour about 30 ml of condensed milk into a glass
2. Set a phin on top: 14–17 g of coffee and 100–120 ml of hot water
3. Once it drips through, stir the coffee into the condensed milk
4. Pour into a tall glass with ice

Iced black coffee

Cà phê đen đá

The same phin without milk, over ice. Often with a spoonful of sugar, dissolved while the coffee is hot.

1. Brew the phin straight into a glass
2. A spoonful of sugar to taste, while the coffee is hot
3. Pour over ice

Bạc xỉu

Bạc xỉu

Saigon’s milky coffee: more milk than coffee. Soft and sweet — for anyone who finds a phin with condensed milk a bit too strong.

1. Into a glass: 1–2 spoonfuls of condensed milk and 60 ml of milk
2. Ice on top
3. Pour in 30–40 ml of strong phin coffee

Egg coffee

Cà phê trứng

Hanoi: Nguyễn Văn Giảng, a bartender at the Metropole hotel, replaced scarce fresh milk with egg yolk whipped with condensed milk. In 1946 he opened his own café, Giảng, which is still open today.

1. Whisk an egg yolk with 2 spoonfuls of condensed milk into a pale cream, 3–5 minutes
2. Brew 40–50 ml of strong phin coffee into a cup
3. Spoon the cream on top

The yolk here is raw — use fresh eggs, ideally pasteurised.

Salt coffee

Cà phê muối

Hue, around 2010: a pinch of salt in the cream softens the bitterness and brightens the sweetness. Now it is made all over the country.

1. Whip 50 ml of cream with a pinch of salt and a spoonful of condensed milk
2. Brew a phin
3. Spoon the salted cream on top; ice if you like

Coconut coffee

Cà phê cốt dừa

Coconut cream and condensed milk blended with ice into a slush, with a strong phin on top.

1. Blend 60 ml of coconut cream, 1–2 spoonfuls of condensed milk and a handful of ice
2. Brew a phin
3. Pour the coffee on top