The world runs on coffee. We all drink it. We all love it. The smell of it alone makes me crave dessert! But have you ever tried Vietnamese Coffee – aka cà phê sữa đá? With sweetened condensed milk, preferably strong, preferably over crushed ice.
I grew up with my mom making cà phê sữa đá on weekends – every once in a while she’d let me dip slices of baguette in it and as a 5 year old I thought it was such a treat – it’s a perfect balance of bitter & sweet. In Orange County, California where I grew up, it was the go to drink for anyone in the know who visited Little Saigon. Now decades later I see this drink show up on menus across the nation. From donut shops to coffee bars the word is finally out and these places are charging upwards of $5 a cup! Allow me to show you how the make the PERFECT cup at home—the authentic way using a true Vietnamese phin coffee filter (purchase here). Sit back, relax. Get the water boiling and watch the coffee drip like sands of the hourglass. You’ll thank me later.
You’ll need an 8 oz Vietnamese Phin Drip Coffee Filter, Trung Nguyen, Cafe Du Monde or French Roast Coffee Grounds, and Sweetened Condensed Milk
Purchases an 8 oz Vietnamese Phin Drip Coffee Filter here
It should be dripping slowly enough to make a lovely caffeinated Rorschach image on the sweetened condensed milk. If it’s coming down in a stream, the filter is too loose.
Use crushed ice or if you prefer these small gumdrop shaped ice cubes, purchase the trays here
