Vietnamese Iced Coffee (aka cà phê sữa đá in southern Vietnam or cà phê nâu đá in northern Vietnam) is a perfect summertime drink that combines a rich dark roast coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The coffee used to brew any Vietnamese coffee should be a coarse dark roast, sometimes with a but of chicory to give it that unique flavor. The coffee is brewed using a small metal drip filter, known as a phin filter (cà phê phin), into a cup containing sweetened condensed milk.
The coffee mixture is then stirred and poured over ice in a tall glass, producing a cool creamy coffee drink. If you add fresh milk to the mixture, this is now known as a bạc xỉu, or a “white coffee” in Vietnamese. There are lots of different ratios of milk to coffee, but the general rule is that the further north you go in Vietnam, the less sweet the coffee is.
To make your own Vietnamese iced coffee without a phin filter, brew a serving of coffee that’s a bit stronger than an espresso, maybe using a pour-over or a moka pot, and then combine it with 1-2 Tablespoons sweetened condensed milk. Blend well and then pour over ice, preferable in a tall, clear glass. If you get really good at making Vietnamese iced coffee at home, eventually you’ll even find yourself producing that layer of foam in the photo below.
If you go to Vietnam yourself, you’ll see lots of Vietnamese iced coffee offered in the streets and in cafes. Most of the Vietnamese iced coffee sold in the streets is made from strongly-flavored instant coffee with sweetened condensed milk, so if you want the real stuff (using a phin filter), you’ll want to go into a café yourself. The hot version of this drink is called cà phê sữa nóng in Vietnamese.
