What Is Vietnamese Coffee? A Complete Guide to Cà Phê, Phin Filter Brewing, and the World's Most Distinctive Coffee Tradition
Vietnamese coffee (cà phê) is a coffee tradition built around dark-roasted robusta beans (not arabica), slow-dripped through a small metal phin filter directly into a glass that already contains sweetened condensed milk, then either drunk hot or poured over ice. The most famous version — cà phê sữa đá, “iced coffee with milk” — is the unofficial national drink of Vietnam and one of the world’s most distinctive coffee preparations. Other essential members of the family include cà phê đen (black phin coffee), cà phê trứng (Hanoi’s whipped egg coffee), bạc xỉu (a milkier sibling popular in the south), cà phê dừa (coconut coffee), and cà phê muối (salt coffee from Huế). What ties the family together is robusta beans, the phin’s slow gravity drip, and the heavy use of condensed milk — a combination that produces a much stronger, sweeter, more chocolate-and-caramel-toned drink than anything in the European or American espresso traditions. ...