Vietnamese have quite a unique way to prepare their coffee. One of the most popular coffees is the ice-milk coffee (cà phê sữa đá) which is also popularly called the ‘drip coffee’ by travellers because of how it was brewed… like this and this.
Didn’t manage to drip the coffee myself when I was in Hanoi in July 2008; the cafe I visited served the well-prepared drink instead (pic).
My sister who tried some coffee in Hanoi prior to my visit told me that Vietnamese coffee was stronger than common espresso… can’t agree on that, at least not with the one I had. A decent glass of coffee though… smooth, thick and rich.
i love ca phe sua da! it’s thick enough for ice not like the ice coffee in the US…more like water.
the vietnam coffee looks like normal chinese or mamak coffee in singapore and malaysia, but prepare method very different. how come the vietnamese restaurants i went to never recommend me vietnamese coffee? ai….
yeinJee, if you keep showing these delicious looking photos of food and drink you might have to change the name of this site to “Yummy”. lol ;)
the filter part which allows the coffee to drain was introduced by the French during the time vietnam was colonized by france
Emilie… well, at least better than * bucks.
kyon… it tasted similar as well; but the Vietnamese coffee I had was thicker than most of the mamaks or Chinese coffee in Malaysia.
cole… hmmm, maybe :)
shin… thanks for the note shin. I think the whole coffee culture in Vietnam was introduced by France.
hehe i love drinking it… yaya for being vietnamese
i’m just now reading all your great posts on your vietnam trip. i didn’t even realize you had more! :P what caught my attention were all the food posts. :P the great thing about traveling is being able to eat yummy food from different cultures and it definitely looks like you had a good variety!
i love cafe sua da! it’s usually a little stronger than expresso. i’m wondering if the coffee you had was watered down a little. cafe sua da is thick b/c it’s made with condensed milk. i usually like mine on the sweeter side so i ask for extra milk…yummy!
vietgirl… yupe, the food is definitely one of the biggest attraction during travel. I always argue with my friends who chose to skip the food to save money while travelling… they are missing a huge pleasure of travelling imo.
I don’t think the coffee I had was watered down. It’s still quite thick, and the aroma was quite strong… just that it’s not stronger (in caffeine sense) than espresso.