Coffee 101:What is Vietnamese Coffee

What is Vietnamese coffee? The Vietnamese coffee get both praise and blame. “Viet coffee sucks!” “This is just coffee with condensed milk” “This is just instant coffee” Voices like that. No matter what, the unique Vietnamese coffee culture summarizes into one sentence : As long as it is coffee, we love them all.

And maybe you’ve already been too familiar with espresso or Americano. But Vietnamese coffee(aka Viet coffee) seems to be a newbie to you?  Vietnam is actually the second biggest coffee exporting country just after Brazil. It’s not only because the huge yield of its special coffee bean, but also profit from the Vietnamese people’s love for coffee.  And luckily I’ve been to Vietnam and had know about their local coffee culture. So this article is about showing you guys the 3 best thing of Vietnamese coffee. When you speaking of Vietnam the first thing comes in your mind maybe its delicious healthy food. But as a coffee lover you should know more about this lovely small country.

The biggest 3 factor of Vietnamese coffee includes:

Coffea robusta

We all know that France invaded Vietnam in 1858 then colonize this country for the last 100 years. Then the French people left, but their coffee culture stays. At first the missionary starts to plant coffee at the church, soon they realize that this land was born to make coffee! Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochina Peninsula, the S-shaped country has a north-to-south distance of 1,650 kilometers so it has various weather type. At the very beginning, Vietnamese don’t know how to deal with this coffee plant, like how to irrigate or what to do with falling leaves. Then at the late 20 century they finally study out the most efficient way to grow coffee, which includes high density, large irrigation, multi-fertilization and direct sunlight. So this intellectual produced their first treasure: Coffea robusta. 

Coffea robusta capacity is nearly the 1/4 of  worldwide capacity which made it hard to ignore. The differences between Arabika and Robusta are as this picture below. Instant coffee are mostly made from Robusta beans, so that’s the reason some people may say that Viet coffee taste like instant coffee(is instant coffee bad for you?).

Vietnamese Coffee Filter

You could say this a revised version of original french press maker. Usually made from stainless steel and with a sheet metal for filtration. The traditional Vietnamese coffee filter creates a wild taste of coffee, just like old french press did. But now with double filtration and great technics, Ecooe french press makes silky smooth coffee. And speaking of the way Vietnam people drinking coffee, the 3rd factor is Condensed milk.

Condensed Milk

About this condensed milk there’s also a story about it. It says during the 100 years of French colonization, people were poor but still want to use coffee to make some fun in their life. And one of the Robusta characteristic is bitter. Most people can stand the bitter with the black coffee and they were not able to add milk like French people did. So people decided to add cheap but also sweet condensed milk to replace milk.(what to put in coffee to make it less bitter)

After knowing what is Vietnamese coffee, let’s move on to how to make yourself a decent Viet coffee. First add 15 gram of coffee powder, then slightly shake powder and press the padder. Add 150 ml of boiled water and let it extract the aroma. Place the filter beyond a cup with a layer of condensed milk. Then you’ll have a cup of savory taste Viet coffee. The fact is, Vietnamese coffee has another good : Ice. During the hot summer, local vendors in Hochiminh city tend to sell Vietnamese coffee with great quantity of ice. And there’s nothing better than a sweet cold coffee to fight against the cruel weather. 

Frankly speaking, Vietnamese coffee may not be able to be divided  into specialty coffee according to nowadays trend. But maybe this savory and rich flavor attracts more your instinct to love. Not only hand-pour specialty coffee makes the best. Remember to keep a open mind to different coffee and different culture, at last, enjoy your coffee and enjoy your life! And if you’re looking for X-mas gift for your coffee pal, read this: the 6 best gifts for coffee lovers.