How To Make Vietnamese Coffee At Home

Treating yourself to Vietnamese coffee is a delicious, surefire way to perk up in the morning. Called cà phê sữa dá in Vietnam, the drink's contents are all in its name: Cà phê means coffee, sữa means milk (condensed is the preferred type), and dá means ice. It's a beloved beverage that can be found at Vietnamese restaurants all over the world, and its popularity has brought the drink to some specialty coffee shops in the United States as well.

While it's certainly something you should drink while in Vietnam, it turns out Vietnamese coffee is also fairly easy to make at home. I asked Vince Nguyen, founder of Nam Coffee – which imports green coffee beans from Vietnam and roasts them in California — to walk through the step-by-step process of how to make Vietnamese coffee in the comfort of your own kitchen. According to Nguyen, once you get used to it, the whole process takes only three minutes to complete — so let's get to it.

Vietnamese coffee is most commonly made using a phin filter. These are small coffee filters that are usually stainless steel or aluminum, but there are ceramic ones as well. The filter consists of four components: a perforated plate, a perforated chamber that sits on top of the plate, a press, and a lid.

You can find phin filters easily on Amazon, and Vietnamese-American coffee companies like Nam Coffee and Nguyen Coffee Supply also sell them (they make a good gift for coffee lovers). If you don't have a phin filter handy, you can also try making Vietnamese coffee using ground espresso or pour-over coffee grounds, but you'd need to adjust the amount of condensed milk you're mixing in — the espresso would be stronger than a phin filtered coffee, but pour-over would be weaker. 

Our demonstration uses a phin filter, but aside from that, the items required are pretty straightforward. All you need is some ground coffee, condensed milk, and a glass of ice (plus a spoon to stir it all together, of course).

The process starts with preparing the ground coffee for brewing. Almost all coffee in the world falls into two categories: arabica, which is generally smoother, and robusta, which is bolder. Vietnam mainly produces the latter, and 100% robusta coffee is traditionally used for cà phê sữa dá. In an ideal world, you'd want some Vietnamese robusta coffee, so you might want to check if any local roasters near you import coffee beans from Vietnam directly.

Ultimately, though, the coffee you choose is a matter of personal taste. These days, Vince Nguyen prefers to use Nam's District One coffee, which is 50% robusta and 50% arabica. If you're using a phin filter, a fine or medium-fine grind works best. To make one serving of Vietnamese coffee, start with 25 grams of ground coffee.

Next, pour some condensed milk into the empty glass or cup that will receive the coffee drip. Nguyen recommends 20 grams of condensed milk for one serving. As you get used to the process, you can adjust the amount of condensed milk to your taste.

Pour the ground coffee into the open phin filter chamber. You'll want to gently level the coffee grounds inside the chamber at this point, but do not tamp it down. Put the chamber on the perforated plate, and then place the entire apparatus on top of the glass with condensed milk.

Next, boil your water — you'll need 120 grams (around 4 fluid ounces) for a single serving. Once boiled, pour just enough water into the filter to "bloom" the coffee — roughly 25 grams (slightly less than an ounce), give or take. Be mindful not to add too much as you pour, as you don't want the coffee to drip yet.

Let the coffee bloom for 25-30 seconds. Doing this before brewing allows carbon dioxide to escape and improves the taste of the end product, as carbon dioxide adds a sour taste to your brew.

After the coffee has bloomed, gently press down on the coffee grounds using the filter press. Leave the press in for the next steps.

Next, pour hot water into the filter chamber until it is full. This step will not require all the water you've boiled, but you'll use the rest later. 

After filling the filter chamber with water, place the lid back on top and wait for the coffee to slowly drip into the glass. It might take about a minute, but this is the phin filter working by design. This gradual extraction of the coffee's flavor and aroma is part of what makes Vietnamese coffee special. Keeping the phin filter lid on as it drips helps keep the water and coffee hot. 

When the coffee from the first pour has dripped down, fill the filter chamber a second time and wait for the coffee to drip again. If you want a stronger brew, you can always use less water (or more, if you want to dilute the coffee a bit further).

Once the coffee has finished brewing, simply stir it and the condensed milk together in the glass, making sure that it's mixed well. Since the coffee is still piping hot, it should come together easily.

Finally, grab a larger glass filled with ice and pour in the mixture of coffee and condensed milk. After all, it won't be cà phê sữa dá without the dá (ice). Not only does it ensure cold refreshment (most of Vietnam experiences warm weather year-round), the ice also helps dilute the drink's strength and sweetness. 

Keep in mind that the measurements listed here are great for making your first Vietnamese coffee, but feel free to adjust them to suit your palate as you learn how to make it. The most important thing is to make a drink that you enjoy.