I just got back from a trip to Vietnam, and I was impressed by the vibrant and innovative coffee scene there. (I was last there in 1996, so it is safe to say a lot has changed).
Coffee growing in Viet Nam was started by the French colonialists in the 1850’s.
As it turns out, Viet Nam’s climate and growing altitudes are well-suited to Robusta coffee as opposed to the Arabica coffee that we use here at Fish River. Robusta is stronger, harsher, and can be a little rubbery or woody compared to the arabica we are used to.
What is interesting is how local coffee drinkers have adapted to robusta as the base of their coffees. There is a lot of condensed milk used to sweeten the brew and temper the harsher notes. It has also led to some distinctively Vietnamese coffee styles. You do need to put aside your specialty coffee sensibilities, which see adding anything to coffee as an affront, and just roll with what they are doing in their country.
The most popular method of making coffee in Viet Nam is a cup top drip filter or “phin” filter. These simple devices are everywhere and make a nice filter. Give the phin filter a rinse beforehand, add around 25grams of course-ground coffee, press lightly with the top filter, and then add a small amount of water (20ml) to get the coffee to bloom. Use water just off the boil, around 92 °C. Add the remaining water until the top cup is nearly full.
Ideally, the coffee should drip at a rate of around 1 drip per second. You can speed it up or slow it down by adding or subtracting coffee.
Here are some of the most popular styles of coffee
Egg Coffee
Yes, you heard right. A base of filter coffee is brewed. Then two egg yolks, some condensed milk, sugar, and vanilla are whisked into something like a custard, and this mixture “floats” on top of the coffee. It is served both hot and on ice.
Cold egg coffee. The result? Surprisingly delicious when you mix it all in.
Salt Coffee
Think of this as like a sweet, salted cream mix floated over a coffee base. The best of these, as the one served below at The Espresso Station in Hoi An, has a little bit of salt on the rim of the glass like a margarita.
This is made by combining equal parts of condensed milk and pouring cream with 1 gram of salt. The salt gives a bit of bite to the otherwise sweet mix.
About 40 mls of filter coffee is used as the base, then the salted cream mix floats on top.
This gives the coffee some balance between the big flavours of the robusta coffee and the cream and condensed milk.
Iced Salt Coffee.
Coconut Coffee
The best of this style uses fresh coconut.
The same coffee base is used as for the other styles. Condensed milk, coconut milk, grated coconut, and fresh milk are put in a blender and mixed. This is then stirred in with the coffee base.
A drip filter in Hoi An.
While these styles of coffee are not to everyone's taste, I was intrigued by the way Vietnam had evolved its own unique styles of coffee. I also did a coffee course in Hoi An that ran through the brewing process with a phin filter and the various styles of coffee served.
On a Vietnam coffee course.
