Why Vietnamese Coffee Deserves More Respect
2024-12-26 · 5 min read
Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, and most people have no idea. The country grows primarily robusta beans, which the specialty coffee world has historically dismissed as inferior to arabica. But Vietnamese coffee culture did not develop despite robusta. It developed because of it, and the results are extraordinary.
Cà phê sữa đá, iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk, is the national drink. The robusta beans deliver a bold, chocolatey intensity that cuts through the richness of the condensed milk. Brewed through a small metal phin filter directly over the glass, it drips slowly, building anticipation. The whole process takes about five minutes and requires zero electricity, no paper filters, and no complicated machinery.
Egg coffee, cà phê trứng, was invented in Hanoi in the 1940s when milk was scarce. Café Giang, still operating on a narrow alley in the Old Quarter, claims to have originated it. Egg yolk is whipped with condensed milk and sugar into a thick, meringue-like foam, then spooned over strong black coffee. It sounds wrong. It tastes like dessert in the best way.
The phin filter is the unsung hero. It costs about three dollars, fits in your pocket, and produces a cup of coffee with more body and intensity than most pour-over setups costing hundreds. Nguyen Coffee Supply, founded by Sahra Nguyen in Brooklyn, has done more than anyone to bring specialty Vietnamese coffee to the American market, sourcing directly from family farms in Vietnam.
What Vietnamese coffee understands that the third-wave coffee movement sometimes forgets is that coffee should be accessible and pleasurable. Not every cup needs a tasting note card. Sometimes the best coffee is the one you drink on a plastic stool on a Saigon sidewalk, condensed milk swirled into something dark and strong, while motorbikes blur past and the city hums around you.
