Vietnamese Coffee Culture

Vietnam is the world's largest producer of robusta, most of it grown on the red basalt soil around Buon Ma Thuot in the highlands, and the country drinks the same bean it exports. The method is a phin, a small metal filter that sits on the glass and drips for several minutes while you wait. The result is thick and bitter, usually cut with sweetened condensed milk over ice. Hanoi added egg coffee in the 1940s, when fresh milk was scarce, whipping yolk and condensed milk into a warm custard over the coffee. Hue drinks it salted, and coconut coffee is blended with ice. The habit is to sit for an hour on a low stool watching the street.

Highlights

• The phin - the metal drip filter, brought to the table still dripping into the glass.
• Ca phe sua da - condensed milk under a long pour of black coffee, served over ice.
• Egg coffee - whipped yolk and condensed milk floated on hot coffee, a Hanoi invention.
• Low stools - plastic seats on the pavement, one glass made to last an hour.

When to go

Any time. Vietnamese drink coffee from early morning and again in the mid-afternoon, and the pavement stools fill from about seven. The harvest around Buon Ma Thuot runs from November into December, when the highland roads are lined with beans drying on tarpaulins. Iced versions make more sense in the south, hot ones through the northern winter.

Before you go

Robusta is harsher and much higher in caffeine than the arabica most visitors are used to, and two glasses will keep you awake. Almost everything is sweetened by default, and asking for it without condensed milk gets a very bitter cup. Weasel coffee sold to visitors is nearly always flavoured imitation, and the farmed version behind the name is not worth supporting.

Nearby

The plantations and drying yards around Buon Ma Thuot in the Central Highlands.