Phin recipe for one iced glass: 25 g of medium fine coffee and 200 g of hot water (1:8). Bloom with 50 g of water for 30 seconds, add the remaining 150 g, and let it drip 4 to 6 minutes onto 20 g of condensed milk (about 1 tablespoon). Stir, then pour over 100 g of ice.
Where Vietnamese coffee comes from
French colonists brought coffee to Vietnam in the second half of the 1800s. The date most often given is 1857. Plantations followed, and over the next century coffee became part of daily life, from street stalls with tiny plastic stools to busy cafés in Hanoi and Saigon.
Today Vietnam is the world's second largest coffee producer, behind Brazil, and most of what it grows is robusta. Much of that coffee comes from the Central Highlands. So when people say "Vietnamese coffee", they usually mean two things at once: a style of coffee, and a way of brewing and serving it.
The phin filter
A phin is a small metal drip brewer that sits right on top of your glass or mug. It is cheap, it has no paper filter, and it brews one serving at a time. It has four parts:
- The plate: a perforated base that rests on the rim of the cup.
- The chamber: a small cylinder that holds the grounds and the water.
- The press: a thin perforated disc that sits on the grounds and keeps them from floating up. Some screw down, some just rest on top.
- The lid: it keeps the heat in, then doubles as a drip tray when you lift the phin off.
The water passes through slowly, usually 4 to 6 minutes for one serving. That slow drip, with a small dose of fairly fine coffee, makes a short, strong, heavy cup. It is closer in strength to a concentrate than to a mug of drip coffee, which is exactly what you want when it is going to meet sweet milk and ice.
Why robusta, and why condensed milk
Most coffee sold in American cafés is arabica. Robusta is a different species. It grows well in hot, lower altitude regions like much of Vietnam, it carries more caffeine than arabica, and it tastes bolder and more bitter, with a heavy body and less of the bright acidity people associate with arabica. Vietnamese roasters often take it dark.
That boldness is the reason condensed milk works so well. The usual explanation for condensed milk itself is practical: fresh milk was scarce and hard to keep in a hot climate, and canned sweetened condensed milk keeps for a long time, even after opening. It stayed popular long after refrigerators became common, because its thick sweetness balances a strong, bitter brew better than plain milk would.
Is it always robusta? No. Plenty of Vietnamese coffee is a blend of robusta and arabica, and Vietnam grows some arabica too. Robusta is the traditional backbone, but the method and the milk matter as much as the bean.
The main Vietnamese coffee drinks
Menus vary by city and by café, but these are the drinks you will see most. Names are written in Vietnamese, with a plain English meaning.
| Drink | Plain English | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| Cà phê đen | Black coffee | Phin coffee with no milk, often with a little sugar. Order cà phê đen đá for it over ice. |
| Cà phê sữa đá | Iced milk coffee | Phin coffee dripped onto condensed milk, stirred, then poured over ice. |
| Cà phê sữa nóng | Hot milk coffee | The same coffee and condensed milk, served hot. The glass often sits in a small bowl of hot water. |
| Bạc xỉu | Milk with a little coffee | Mostly milk and condensed milk, with a small amount of coffee, usually iced. A gentler, sweeter drink. |
| Cà phê trứng | Egg coffee | Egg yolks whipped with sugar and condensed milk into a thick cream, spooned over strong coffee. |
| Cà phê cốt dừa | Coconut coffee | Coconut milk or cream blended with condensed milk and ice into a slush, with strong coffee. |
| Cà phê muối | Salt coffee | Coffee and condensed milk topped with a lightly salted cream. |
A few of these have well known stories behind them. Bạc xỉu is generally credited to the Chinese community of Saigon's Chợ Lớn district in the early 1900s, as a lighter, milkier drink. Egg coffee is tied to Hanoi in the 1940s, when milk was scarce during wartime. The story most often told credits Nguyễn Văn Giảng, a bartender at the Metropole hotel, who later opened his own café. Salt coffee is the newest of the group. It is widely credited to a small café in Huế that started serving it around 2010, and it has since spread across the country.
How to make Vietnamese coffee at home
You need a phin, a heatproof glass, a kettle, and a can of sweetened condensed milk. A scale helps, but it is not required. The calculator above starts at one iced glass, and you can switch it to hot or black.
- Add the milk. Spoon about 20 g of condensed milk, roughly a tablespoon, into the glass.
- Add the coffee. Put 25 g of medium fine coffee in the phin chamber, shake it level, and set the press on top.
- Bloom. Pour in about 50 g of water just off the boil and wait 30 seconds while the grounds swell.
- Fill and wait. Add the remaining 150 g of water, cover, and let it drip for 4 to 6 minutes.
- Stir and serve. Lift off the phin, stir the coffee into the milk, and drink it hot, or pour it over 100 g of ice.
For the full method, with fixes for a phin that drips too fast or too slowly and options if you do not own one, see our Vietnamese iced coffee recipe.
On the beans: a dark, bold coffee gets you closest to the café taste. A Vietnamese style robusta blend is the traditional choice, but any strong dark roast you enjoy will stand up to the condensed milk. Light, bright coffees tend to get lost under the sweetness.
How Vietnamese coffee differs from other coffee
- Strength: about 1 part coffee to 8 parts water, roughly twice as strong as a typical drip ratio.
- Brew method: a slow gravity drip through metal, one cup at a time, with no paper filter and no machine.
- Sweetener: condensed milk does the work of both milk and sugar.
- Pace: you wait for it. In Vietnam, sitting with a phin while it drips is part of the ritual.