How To Make Vietnamese Coffee (The Cafefin Recipe!) 

Not to mention that most coffee in Vietnam, even these days, are robusta, which is quite bitter. The coffee ground is usually as fine as the level of espresso recipe, which make it even more bitter and strong. That's why many, not all, but many, people love to have condensed milk to balance out the flavor. Plus, the aroma of coffee, hot water and condensed milk mixed in together is very strong and lovely.

Great answer! Condensed milk invented by the French and was popular during the Civil War in Viet Nam. Suitable to keep in the storerage with the tropical weather. And yes...it's a key ingredient of Vietnamese coffee.

@@TronKyLam robusta coffee is commonly used in street coffee, but fancy coffee stores have used arabica for a while. In reality, Vietnamese grounded coffee is mixed between robusta and arabica in various recipes and sometimes the barista add moka, cherry, culi, catimor and cacao into the coffee

@@MinhNguyen-ff6xf that's why I said most. You may mention "fancy", I used the word specialty, and I have some favorite go to places for me too, but still, I would say around 80-90% of the place in general still stick with robusta. And yeah, specialty cafes in Vietnam still make Vietnamese coffee the traditional way with some twists by either using a blend or fine robusta, but overall, the original idea of putting condensed milk in coffee was because back in the day, people roast their coffee darker (and I hate it) and the way people processed the coffee cherries after picking them was quite rough and not that caring.

Grady Nguyen he said three times more than he added, so between 90 and 120ml, which again fits your description (half and half)

Isn't that how you make bạc xỉu?

Me too! I bought my own Caph Phin before i left the country

use 25 gram of coffee? hmm...

German RR I never heard of that, sounds good. when I went to Spain I loved cortados. I can’t get it anywhere in the U.S.

SuppSamanthaa I have a cortado every day. It's so simple that anyone can make it at home: an espresso with a very little milk. In Spain, as you know, there is an after-lunch and it is customary to savor coffee slowly while chatting with friends. Greetings

I had cafe con leche all over Spain when I visited in the early 1990s. That experience was the start of my coffee obsession 😂

Thank you Henryk!

how much time do you steep with the aeropress? with the phin, the total drip time seems much longer than the aeropress 2-3 minute steep, if you do steep at all (some people weirdly don't and make weak cups)

LOL

@@jonathanluu22 maybe in the past cow milk was less common? There must be a reason why condensed milk is so popular, they use it in coffee literally everywhere there.

@@jonathanluu22 I didn't say you didn't have cow milk ffs. I was merely stating there must be a reason why condensed milk is so popular other than that is just tastes good. I've visited many times and lived there for a year, I love Vietnam. Stop acting like an ass when I was trying to be respectful.

@@jonathanluu22 you need to calm down man. guy was just theoretizing, that in the past, fresh milk wasnt as available as it is now, therefore people got used to drinking condensed milk. nobodys calling vietnam poor or resource drained.

For reference, for the fact of fresh milk, we do have them. The guy in the video might use the wrong grammar, or did not say it clearly. In the past, when the French brought the coffee culture into Vietnam, we did not have that much milk around. Moreover, Vietnam lane is more suitable for growing robusta than arabica beans, which is much more bitter, hence the tradition of putting condensed milk still continue til today. And as a barista who originally came from Vietnam and currently lives in Australia, even in 2014-2015, something such as full cream milk was not that popular, that's why you could not find the cup of cappuccino that easily. I don't know how to say it, but back then milk bought in the supermarket is pretty much like a diluted version, which could not froth up that well in the process of steaming. Considering the time the video was made, the guy probably had not come back to Vietnam for around 2-3 years, so he was not aware of such change.

Funny that you said it, you can see some coffee grind fell into the condensed milk at 2:18.

Thanks for sharing that. We hope to come one day and try it all!:)

agree on your disagreement to the point that we dont have fresh milk to make milk coffee. However, to be exact, we, Vietnamese mostly uses low quality, robusta which is darkly roasted, otherwise, it will bring out flaws of these low quality beans and this roasting level surely give you a lot of bitterness. so in order to compensate the bitterness, we use condenses milk not fresh milk. the grab up my point, fresh milk and coffee doesnt seem to be paired well for you because it s possibly that you re using bad beans.

Big agree with u

He's talking about historically, when Vietnam didn't have refrigeration yet. That's when the drink was invented.

it’s bc it is coarsely ground like French press But then it is filtered kind of like a pour over So if u have a coarse pour over it will extract less so you need more coffee Basically u will get more of the dark roast flavor and less bitterness bc you extract less coffee

So this is roughly four times the strength of my usual pour-over, which is strong by local standards! For 200ml of coffee, not a huge mug. I've been wondering! Of course it is then diluted by all that ice. I do enjoy this by the way, not complaining. At home I have black pour-over coffee. Trung Nguyen is very good, and has more than one label, it's worth talking about by itself!

It appears he's using Tatra 'Piknik Condensed Sweetened Whole Milk', which is pasteurized milk & sugar and is made in the Czech Republic. Tatra also make the two following products, which I'd love to try: Tatra 'Jesenka 21.5% Condensed Sweetened Whole Milk', which is pasteurized cream & sugar. Tatra 'Pikao Condensed Sweetened Whole Milk With Cocoa', which is pasteurized milk, sugar, fat-reduced cocoa powder (7.2%) Longevity Brand (Sữa Ông Thọ) is said to be the most traditional condensed milk for Vietnamese Coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá). Longevity Brand's 'Sweetened Condensed Milk' is made with thick, whole milk while their 'Sweetened Condensed Milk Gold' is made with a higher percentage of cream. Both are said to be creamier and less sweet than US condensed milks. Some have recommended Nestlé 'La Lechera Sweetened Condensed Milk'. I've tried that and find it good, plus just purchased Nestlé 'La Lechera Dulce de Leche Milk-based Caramel', to see how that works with Vietnamese Coffee. Both products are available in a very convenient, refillable squeeze bottle, plus Nestlé 'La Lechera Sweetened Condensed Milk' is available in a 28oz capped bag.

It's not about inferiority - that's an outdated mentality. Robusta is just stronger than arabica and can mix with condensed milk without losing its flavor. Arabica beans, in comparison, get completely overwhelmed by condensed milk and dairy in general and lose all of their mild notes. I've tried to making ca phe sua da using 100% arabica and it always tastes bland and underwhelming every time. It's acidic and mild rather than bittersweet and rich. Some things just belong with certain things and not other things, and this is one of those cases.

daipaulig my thoughts as well

That's true!

I see your point, and we will consult with Jackie. It is true that condensed milk is well suited to balance strong and bitter taste of robusta. On the other hand, it can be just caused by the fact that fresh milk is not available. Then the remaining ingredients are adjusted. Not an expert, happy to learn new information!

European Coffee Trip Neither am I, Just guessing.

They use condensed milk because when the French occupied Indochina from 1887 until 1954, they introduced them to drinking coffee. Back then fresh milk was not readily available but canned milk was. They liked the way it tasted preparing it this way and have stayed with it ever since.

1. buy six phins, they're cheap as hell, about 1 dollar each. You can get a commercial one(way bigger) but highly doubt you can buy that unless you know people from vietnam. vietnamese ground coffee, in this case "Trung Nguyen", has some "stuff" added so you don't have to brew the coffee fresh, it can be pre-brew and put in the fridge for half a day, this is they way street stall in vietnam does it. note: only put black into the fridge, add milk after, do not add milk before putting in the fridge. use vinamilk for authentic taste, have fun! 2. use wet spoon or wet finger and touch across the bottom of the phin 2-3 minutes into the brewing time ;)

Trung Nguyen is a famous coffee brand in Vietnam. Regarding your question, they blend robusta and arabica but majority is Robusta, that's why Vietnamese coffee is very stronger for foreigner.

Mai Nguyen Huu That brand is also flavored with butter, chocolate and other ingredients. It tastes pretty good I like it.

Trần Minh Trí good job. You roasted your own coffee at home.

@@tranminhtri43 you spelled Coffee wrong.

@@OMY2FYB :3 roger sorry bro

You can buy this in the UK in supermarkets. Carnation tube 170g.

I empty the can of condensed milk into a squeeze bottle like ketchup. It much less messy than dealing with a spoon or constantly pouring from the can.

@@joefanrenaissanceman8260 ooh nice! That’s honestly a good way. I use a container and the lid area can sugar crystallize making it hard to open.

@@joefanrenaissanceman8260 great idea! Keeps better too

Large kettle is probably instant coffee mixed with hot water French press will get you similar flavor It wasn’t shown here but usually the phin is on top of a giant cup of ice with the milk And bc this slowly drips, it will get cold coffee instantly but not watery bc of how slow it is If you had used French press you’d need to cool down the coffee somehow first then ice it

That's called Fin, means Filter.

Adolph pour over kettle.

?????????

There is, but I don't think you can find it anywhere outside of Vietnam

phin filter or vietnamese filter www.amazon.com/Vietnamese-Traditional-Coffee-Filter-Gravity/dp/B008A0932S

Thank you!

Thanks for answering the question. Yes, it is a Vietnamese filter.

Vietnamese call it as "Phin"

Thank you :)

40 years ago

Trần Vũ Mạnh you mean the Vietnam war? But what does this have to do with milk?

@@discovery91 it's expensive back then. That's it.

Trần Vũ Mạnh ah okay thanks for your reply!

They do now, but back then milk is quite expensive. Now they put condensed milk because of the old habit and it more tasty than sugar and also sweet .

The taste is quite different, maybe if you dialed in a shot of espresso and pulled it a bit longer to balance out the acidity, but my experience trying to substitute espresso for this steeped coffee is that they are quite different.

It very much is. Robusta tastes terrible when brewed the Espresso way.

Sweetened

thank you

I didn't know there is not-sweetened condensed milk. Condensed milk here in my country is always sweet. Thanks for this bit of new info. 🙂

no, just get a drip filter like this for like 5 bucks

Thanks for the question. It is brewed with hot water, it is just diluted with ice.

literally amazon

Vietnamese coffee they add lots of crushed ice!!

That actually has simple reason. Condensed milk lasts for really long time, and also they like it sweet (sweetened condensed milk is sorta norm). As a bonus, it doesnt dilute your coffee as much as fresh milk. Taste is quite different too.

Yes, can be true. You may getting little nervous preparing coffee in front of camera but we don't think it was any issue for the final drink. Thanks for your feedback anyway!

@@subutai8392 but this is super strong _robusta_. 12 g makes me happy and very active, 16g makes me crazy and tense and I don't want to drink more coffee for the day. 25g...

@Peter Sas do you not dilute it in water? Like "americano" style? Or do you drink it as it is like "espresso" style?

@@wizendwizard I never dilute it. I always follow the traditional ways: plain/"espresso style" hot, or with ice, or occasionally with condensed milk (hot/cold).

what kind of Vietnamese coffee recipe requires only 12-16 grams of coffee? 20 grams is the bare minimum and 25 is the norm

Well, its available in Czech and considered as "vietnamese coffee". At least Trung does promote themselves as such. Perhaps you should explain what is proper vietnamese coffee. :D

@@corwinblack4072 Would love to explain a little bit from my pov :D I wouldn't have any problem if the drink is called "vietnamese coffee" and he did show all the basic steps to brew coffee the vietnamese way. However, I don't think vietnamese people have the blooming step but I wouldn't complain much about it cause it seems like the coffee didn't "bloom" in this video anyway. The only thing that bothers me is that he calls the coffee beans/grounds "vietnamese coffee from Trung Nguyen" is disappointing especially from a barista and his final cup is super watery too lol. What makes coffee vietnamese coffee is the robusta beans and Trung Nguyen is simply the roaster. To sum up, coffee (robusta) that brewed with concentrated ratio (preferably a slow brew), around 1:10 ratio, mix with condensed milk (you can adjust the amount of condensed milk to taste or no milk at all, up to you), crushed ice (or drink it hot) -> vietnamese coffee

@@fromsaigontoyou Ah, this, understood. I have a Phin, actually had bag of similar coffee. There is Robusta in most of those blends too, just not only that. My favorite way was something like 20g for 120g of water or close to it. Made very "thick" coffee. Its quite nice with condensed (sweetened) milk. I agree his version was a bit too diluted. On manual for Phin (and their coffee, Trungs) is something like "bloom" phase, but its more like pre-infusion/soaking than anything else. Also 10 minutes is a bit too slow for drip I think..

@@corwinblack4072 agreed, 3-4 mins is enough

@@corwinblack4072 10 minutes is the standard for older folks as they drink their coffee super bitter. Normally the drip time is about 6-8 minutes.

Why?

looks like the Acaia Lunar