Vietnamese coffee: the phin, the drinks and how to order

Việt Nam runs on coffee. It is one of the biggest coffee growers in the world, usually second only to Brazil, and it drinks a good share of it on tiny stools by the side of the road. Vietnamese coffee is strong, slow and often very sweet. Here is what you are drinking and how to ask for it.

The beans

The French brought coffee in the 19th century, and the red soil of the Central Highlands turned out to suit it perfectly. Most Vietnamese coffee is Robusta, much of it from Đắk Lắk. Robusta is bolder and more bitter than Arabica, with about twice the caffeine. There is some Arabica too, from cooler hills, but the taste of a street café is Robusta: dark, chocolatey, a little smoky.

Local roasts tend to be very dark, and some roasters add a little butter or sugar to the pan. That is the rich, almost caramel smell drifting out of the coffee shops.

The phin

A phin is a small metal filter that sits on top of your glass: a cup with holes in the bottom, a press that sits on the grounds, and a lid. Hot water goes in and the coffee drips through, slowly, for one small, thick shot.

• It often arrives still dripping. Leave it alone; it is not broken.
• When it stops, lift it off and rest it on the upturned lid.
• If there is condensed milk in the bottom of the glass, stir hard before you drink.

Why condensed milk? The usual explanation is that fresh milk was scarce and didn’t keep in the heat, while a tin of condensed milk did. It stuck, and now it is the flavour of the whole country.

The drinks

• Cà phê đen: black coffee, hot (nóng) or iced (đá). It may come sweetened; ask for không đường (no sugar) if you want it plain.
• Cà phê sữa: coffee with condensed milk. In Hà Nội it is cà phê nâu, “brown coffee”, and iced it is nâu đá.
• Cà phê sữa đá: the same, poured over a tall glass of ice. The southern classic, and the one for a hot afternoon.
• Bạc xỉu: a southern drink that is mostly milk with a little coffee. The name is said to come from Cantonese. Good if strong coffee scares you.
• Cà phê trứng: egg coffee, Hà Nội’s famous one. It has its own guide.
• Cà phê muối: salt coffee, from Huế. Coffee and condensed milk under a layer of lightly salted cream. Sweet, salty and far too easy to drink.
• Cà phê cốt dừa: coconut coffee. Coffee poured over a slush of coconut cream, condensed milk and ice. Dessert, really.

Café culture

A Vietnamese café can be a smart room with air conditioning, but the classic is a few low tables on the pavement and a row of plastic stools facing the street. Everyone faces out, like an audience. The show is the traffic.

• A glass of trà đá, iced tea, often comes with your coffee, free or close to it. Sip it between mouthfuls; the coffee is strong.
• Nobody rushes you. One coffee buys you an hour, and people meet, work, chat or just watch the street go by.
• Mornings are busiest, before work, but there is always someone on a stool.

How to order

• “Cho tôi một cà phê sữa đá.” One iced milk coffee, please.
• “Một nâu đá.” One iced milk coffee, the Hà Nội way.
• “Ít đường.” Less sugar. “Ít sữa.” Less milk.
• “Không đá.” No ice.

Pay when you leave. For more words, see our street food phrases. And if you fall for it, most markets sell ground coffee and aluminium phins to take home. Brew it strong, and use less water than you think.

Brew it with us

In our Egg Coffee & Phin Workshop, in a tube house café above the street, you learn to brew with a phin and whisk your own cà phê trứng. You taste egg coffee, salt coffee and coconut coffee, made with Robusta beans from Đắk Lắk, and keep your own aluminium phin.