Coffee in Vietnam
Vietnam is a particularly dynamic player in the coffee market! It is neither more nor less than the first producer of Robusta coffee in the world and second world producer of coffee behind Brazil. In total, it is a market of more than 3 billion dollars for this Southeast Asian country.
Coffee in Vietnam is a gigantic market for coffee franchises in particular, Vietnamese are more and more coffee lovers and coffee shops are multiplying.
Until today, the Vietnamese were more oriented towards local and inexpensive robusta, but new consumption habits are emerging: as everywhere, more "trendy" franchise coffees attract the youngest, such as Starbucks Coffee , which you already know!
Or Wayne's Coffee , a Swedish franchise, which you may not know.
The market is not at the mercy of the first comer either, if we take the example of Illy Café , which is positioned on high-end coffee and has not yet succeeded in convincing consumers.
The phenomenon of coffee shops in Vietnam, a real paradise for coffee lovers , is comparable to the phenomenon of bars / brasseries that can be found in France.
The bar in France has played an important role of social cement, a meeting place deeply rooted in French culture, although today we are gradually losing this habit and it seems doomed to disappear in favor of more "sophisticated", tea rooms, coffee shops, cocktail bars, beer bars, etc.
The place of the coffee shop in Vietnam is that of the bar in France, it is a meeting place where we meet regularly to go out, discuss, pass the time. 🙂 You will find them absolutely everywhere.
In France, it's only a matter of time… 😉
The different coffees in Vietnam
When we talk about coffee in Vietnam, we often refer to Café Phin (Vietnamese coffee maker) ! Let's first take a look at consumption habits to drink your coffee like in Vietnam, it can be consumed hot or cold:
- Ca phe (Den) Da is served cold, a large glass filled with ice cubes into which coffee has been poured.
- Ca phe Sua Da is also served cold but on top of that, we added a bed of sweetened condensed milk! Very popular, the milk is too thick to mix with the coffee on its own, allowing time to enjoy the spectacle of the different layers, condensed milk, ice cubes and coffee. It's up to you to mix everything, you can taste your coffee before mixing it with milk. 😉
- Ca phe (Den) Nong , a real black coffee, without ice or sweetener.
- Ca phe Sua Nong , with condensed milk like sua da but served hot.
- Ca phe Trung , a coffee served… with an egg. A specialty of Hanoi!
- Kopi Luwak , this coffee often associated with Indonesia is also very popular in Vietnam . Civets (supposedly wild, this is rarely the case today) eat the coffee cherries without being able to digest the beans. They are then collected behind to make coffee, which gives it a particular taste.
From now on, if you go to Vietnam to drink coffee, you will not be lost. 🙂 Coffee served cold is generally more popular than coffee served hot.
Can we talk about coffee in Vietnam without talking about the Vietnamese coffee maker?
A Vietnamese coffee pot, the phin
The particularity most often associated with Vietnam today is a small coffee maker that does not look like the Phin or simply Vietnamese coffee maker .
The phin is a simple aluminum or stainless steel percolator to put directly on your cup.
You pour in your ground coffee, you place an aluminum filter on top of it, then you pour hot water and you just have to let the extraction operate for a few minutes.
Few criteria surround the choice of a phin but one of them is essential:
- If you choose an aluminum phin, you shouldn't use it for more than two or three months. It is also known in Vietnam that repeated contact with aluminum in coffee will eventually cause you to absorb particles that you don't want to ingest...
the ideal is to have a Phin that you can keep all your life.
- Also, there are two families of Phin, some have a filter that screws and others have a filter that arises and blocks very summarily. The first category, much more practical, is rarer. The second category is much more common because simply less qualitative, very often in aluminum.
Discover your Phin
How to prepare coffee with a Vietnamese coffee maker?
We will tell you which coffee to buy right after, for a complete experience… First of all, you obviously need a Vietnamese coffee maker.
- Place your (freshly) ground coffee in the phin, about 10 grams . Then rearrange the filter on top, use the filter to distribute the coffee evenly and evenly with a (very) slight compaction. You must first boil water to about 90°C.
- Place a bottom of sweetened condensed milk in the glass , prefer a real transparent glass to a porcelain cup. Less practical to avoid getting burned, but that's the game! You won't be able to enjoy the show otherwise. 😋
- Place the Phin on your glass and fill it with hot water. Replace the cap on top and wait. Admire the coffee flowing drop by drop on your bottom of condensed milk!
By trial and error, you should arrive at an ideal extraction time of 4-5min , you can obviously do the whole thing without condensed milk.
That said, do it at least once per experience! 🙂
- One trick is, during extraction, to have placed the glass in a bowl of hot water to keep the coffee hot. Do it if you can't get coffee hot enough… If that's not enough, forget the hot water at 90° and bring it to the boil.
All this, of course, to make you a hot coffee. To prepare a cold coffee , you just have to hit the coffee in a glass filled with ice cubes, during (ice cubes in the glass) or after the extraction!
How to go further and REALLY make a Vietnamese coffee?
Phin is essential. But to go further, only one solution: a Vietnamese coffee requires… Vietnamese coffee.
I suggest you try a coffee from another great local franchise that represents to them what Starbucks is to the West: Trung Nguyen Coffee .
Why this cafe?
Believe me, you won't be disappointed! I had this coffee tasted by several people around me and it left no one indifferent.
Trung Nugyen coffee has an atypical taste that I have encountered many times when buying my coffee on the street in Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia.
A little anecdote? Very well…
I still remember having asked for my coffee without sugar to this nice gentleman while stopping on the side of the road, I was on a scooter in Siem Reap.
Convinced that he had finally forgotten not to add sugar, it took me some time to realize that it was indeed a black coffee with a striking particularity: a coffee with a pronounced taste of chocolate!
I found it months later without the form of “Creative” coffee at Trung Nguyen, it's different from a sweet coffee . You MUST try. Those who don't like coffee also have every interest in trying it!
Know of course that Trung Nguyen coffee is probably flavored coffee according to our sources (like Coca Cola, it's a well-kept secret….),
but although it's not so much specialty coffee , we invite you above all to travel and discover… and therefore, to drink your coffee like on the street in Vietnam!
Coffee in Vietnam is a terroir that naturally develops aromas of coffee chocolate , you will have the opportunity to taste it on your next trip!
Prepare your Vietnamese coffee with your Phin Vietnamese coffee maker and TrungNguyen coffee, which is a perfect introduction, the trip will be complete. 🙂
You know all about coffee in Vietnam and the Vietnamese Phin coffee maker .