Vietnamese Coffee
Visitors to Vietnam coffee houses will know that the Vietnamese style of coffee and coffee making is super-sweet, unique and very good. The major coffee producer Trung Nguyen has become world-famous and the traditional Vietnamese metal coffee filters are becoming more widely available outside Vietnam, so everyone has an opportunity to brew their own cup of Vietnamese coffee at home.
At its simplest, Ca phe sua da is made with finely ground Vietnamese-grown dark roast coffee individually brewed with a small metal Vietnamese drip filter (cà phê phin) into a cup containing about a quarter to a half as much sweetened condensed milk, stirred and poured over ice.
The essential piece of equipment for making a good cup of Vietnamese coffee is the small metal phin filter which looks like a tiny cup and saucer. This is a four-piece item, consisting on the filter body itself, a metal 'saucer' that sits on top of the coffee cup, a press to tamp the coffee, and a lid for the top.
Any good quality medium/course-grind coffee will produce a great cup of coffee!
How to Make Vietnamese Coffee
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Put 2-3 teaspoons or rounded tablespoon of coarsely-ground coffee (about 20 grams) into the Vietnamese coffee maker filter body.
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Gently shake the coffee to level it, then insert the press and tamp the coffee lightly. Leave the tamping device in place.
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Pre-heat the cup with boiling water and sit the cup spanner or saucer on top of the empty cup. Sit the coffee filter chamber on the saucer.
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Pour just 20 ml of boiling water into the filter and leave it until the coffee has absorbed the water. This is the secret step! If all the water is simply poured straight in, weak coffee will flow through the filter with lots of grounds. By allowing the coffee to swell and absorb the small amount of water first, a good cup is assured.
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Once the first 20 ml of water has been absorbed, fill the chamber with boiling (not just hot) water and put the lid on to retain heat. Be prepared to wait 4-6 minutes for the water to drain through. Lift the unit to check after 3-4 minutes or use a glass so that the process can be observed. Once the process is finished, the inverted lid can be used to house the messy filter.
Condensed Milk Coffee
For an authentic Vietnamese coffee, sweetened condensed milk is the answer. This super-sweet version is an acquired taste, but that’s how it is served in Vietnam. Put a dessertspoonful of condensed milk in the cup after pre-heating and let the coffee drip.
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Recipe Idea - Iced Coffee
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