Making Vietnamese Coffee at Home
Audience Statement: This post is intended for all audiences. No prior knowledge of coffee is required, but basic understanding of roast levels and coffee cultivars is recommended.
Introduction
Vietnamese coffee is uniquely strong and flavorful, usually moderated with a hefty dose of condensed milk. It’s a staple of any Vietnamese restaurant, and for good reason. It’s good iced or hot, and has more caffeine than a typical espresso.
Use a Phin
The device used to make Vietnamese coffee is called a phin. (Pronounced “feen”). It’s a four piece metal filter that effectively acts as a drip coffee maker. Because it has a metal filter with holes instead of the traditional paper filter, it allows more of the coffee oils to pass through, contributing to the unique flavor.
Finding one at your local Asian market is best. If you can’t find one in person, you can purchase one online from Nguyen Coffee Supply.
Use Robusta Beans
Using a phin is only part of the equation. Most coffee is made with arabica beans, but Vietnamese coffee requires robusta beans. Robusta beans have a stronger flavor, more bitterness, and more caffeine. The stronger flavor means robusta is more capable of taking milk without losing complexity of flavor. If you own a coffee grinder, buying whole beans and grinding them is always better. If not, there are plenty of good pre-ground options available.
As with all things, your first choice should be finding it from a local business. Supporting local businessess helps your community, and local places will have coffee that’s been roasted more recently. Readers who live in western countries may not be able to find whole bean robusta at a supermarket. It hasn’t seen worldwide popularity the same way arabica has.1 For whole bean robusta, you may have to check local coffee roasters. Most will not have it, you may have to look specifically for Vietnamese coffee roasters. If no local places carry it, you can buy robusta online (whole or ground), also from Nguyen Coffee Supply.
Pre-ground robusta is usually available at brick and mortar H-mart stores or other Asian markets under the Cafe Du Monde brand.
Figure 1: A can of Cafe du Monde.
Preparation
At this point, you should have your phin and your robusta coffee. Using a gram scale is highly recommended, but not strictly necessary. Vietnamese coffee is typically prepared with 30g coffee per 150-200 mL water.2 That’s a much stronger dose than typical drip coffee. Preparation steps are as follows:
Heat water for your coffee to 96C/205F. If you don’t have a thermometer or temperature controlled kettle, boiling (100C/212F) water is also acceptable. You can use as much or as little water as you desire, but the recommended amount is 150-200 mL.
Measure out 30g of your coffee. If using whole beans, measure 30g of beans and grind to approximately 46% of the size scale on your grinder. This will require dialing in on your grinder for optimal results, as grinders vary in their scales.
Put the bottom plate and the cup of your phin on top of your cup. Add your ground coffee to the phin, but don’t put the filter plate or lid on yet.
Bloom your coffee by slowly pouring a small amount of hot water over the grounds. Distribute the water as evenly as you can. Let the grounds sit for 30 seconds, they should expand slightly. (If they don’t, you may need to add more water.)
Place your filter piece on the grounds and lightly compress them.
Pour water into the phin, filling it to the top. Allow it to empty before filling with more water. This may take up to a minute. Refill and allow to drip repeatedly until you have the desired volume of coffee.
Add condensed milk until your coffee is a caramel color. The exact amount is not important, but 2 teaspoons is a good starting point.
Figure 2: A glass beaker mug with 250 mL of Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. It’s a dark caramel color.
The above image is approximately the color you should aim for. That coffee was made with Cafe du Monde, with 200 mL of coffee before adding milk, and about 50 mL condensed milk. Your color may vary depending on the coffee you use. Cafe du Monde is dark roast, whole bean robusta may be lighter.
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, or want to see the data from my trials, feel free to contact me.
Footnotes
The specialty coffee world has historically slandered robusta, calling its taste “rubbery” or “burnt”. It is the opinion of this blog that anyone slandering robusta in this manner has entirely missed the nuance that robusta requires different preparation than arabica. ↩
This number was generated via empirical testing. No dose smaller than this was able to fully recreate Vietnamese coffee as tasted by the author, and this dose was later confirmed to be what their local Vietnamese cafe uses. ↩