How to make Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk, using a phin, the traditional Vietnamese coffee filter. Show
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe Vietnamese Coffee with a phinEstimated reading time: 6 minutes Table of contents
Vietnamese coffee, you love it or you hate it. Strong, bitter, yet extremely sweet, and a legend in its own time! This particular cup of Java seems to have a massive following worldwide, everyone singing sweet rhapsodies in its name. It’s intimidating and it’s addictive. Coffee, like baguette, was introduced to Vietnam by the French, but oh boy, have the Vietnamese turned it into a tradition for the ages! What is Vietnamese Coffee?The most famous Vietnamese coffee amongst non locals is the one you see in the images here, dark strong coffee, dripping onto an inch high of sweet condensed milk. This is known as ca phe sua (milk coffee) in Ho Chi Minh City and the rest of the south, and ca phe nua (brown/dark coffee) in the north. To anyone born anywhere within Asia, like me, Vietnamese coffee is not all that big a deal; after all, that’s how we drink our coffee and tea, with condensed milk. Before the advent of Starbucks et al, naturally. How do you like your Coffee?I like mine any which way I can get it! Black, white, sweet, hot, cold, in a shake, in a smoothie, in cake, and in supplements. As you can see above, it makes a great workout drink. And one product I recently discovered, is Organo Gold, I just love their various coffee selections! Coffee, Avocado & Banana SmoothieHow to make Vietnamese Coffee?It’s the same process as making any coffee with a coffee drip and coffee beans:
Vietnamese Coffee FilterThe Vietnamese coffee filter is called a phin. In Vietnam, you’ll find them everywhere, especially at shops that cater to tourists, like Ben Thanh Market. Here in the UK, they are easily found online, Amazon being an example. And if you happen to have a large Vietnamese community near you, well, that’s a no brainer! The phin is a lightweight, cheap and cheerful contraption made up of 4 parts, from the top:
Other types of Vietnamese CoffeeStarbucks has nothing on Vietnamese Coffee! There is quite the adventurous range of coffee to be had in Vietnam! And slowly, but surely, I’ll get around to them all on this site! After all, it’s only taken me 3 years to do this one! Here are just some different types of Vietnamese coffee: Coffee Smoothie (Sinh Toh Ca Phe)Ok, nothing extraordinary about this one, except that the Vietnamese will add coffee to their fruit juices. Not so sure about that one! But see my coffee smoothie above? I thought I was being cool with that combination. Until I saw it in Hanoi! Huh! It is quite the thing there and is known as sinh to ca phe chuoi bo! Egg Coffee (Ca Phe Trung)Now this is a little different. That is, if you didn’t spend years in a gym being fed egg smoothies with coffee and milk by your gym instructor! Seriously though, I really like this combination, condensed milk and egg yolk are whipped to a light, airy froth and poured over thick black coffee. This is something I do from time to time, to my kids’ disgust! Yoghurt Coffee (Sua Chua Ca Phe)Again, this is a beautiful combination, coffee adds just that little bit of flavour to the bland, sour yoghurt. Not unlike the many flavoured yoghurts you find these days. Vietnamese Coffee BeansAny strong coffee will do to make a good cup of Vietnamese coffee. As to whether you should be using arabica or robusta beans, well, that’s a matter of preference; the Arabica is naturally the coffee of choice for many conoisseurs. While the French may have introduced the arabica to Vietnam, today, Vietnamese coffee is mainly made with the robusta bean. In fact, Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of the cheaper robusta coffee, and 2nd largest producer of coffee overall, behind Brazil. Robusta coffee is harsher and stronger on the palate, and for the true Vietnamese experience, that’s what you want. Vietnamese Coffee Stall at Ben Thanh Market, also selling the filtersVietnamese Coffee without a Vietnamese Coffee FilterJust make your strong black coffee the way you usually would. No instant coffee though. Use a french press, a moka post or your regular drip filter. Whatever you have, just make your coffee strong, and gently pour it over the condensed milk. Or not. You are, after all, going to be stirring that coffee and milk! Let’s take a look at how to make Vietnamese coffee! Shall we get our aprons on? If you like the recipe and article, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you! How to make Vietnamese Coffee (Ca Phe Sua)How to make Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk, using a phin, the traditional Vietnamese coffee filter. 5 from 33 votes Print Pin Add to CollectionGo to CollectionsCourse: Drinks Cuisine: Vietnamese Keyword: coffee Prep Time: 2 minutes Cook Time: 4 minutes Total Time: 6 minutes Servings: 1 Calories: 48kcal Author: Azlin Bloor Ingredients
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