Vietnamese Coffee: A Guide to Vietnam's Coffee Culture

Coffee in Vietnam is more than just a drink, and coffee culture is an essential part of everyday life. Over a coffee, people come together to watch the world go by and enjoy a break from the heat.

When you visit Vietnam, there's one thing you'll probably pick up very quickly in the local language: how to order coffee just the way you like it!

It may surprise you to learn that Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer. But once you visit the country, you'll quickly see how central the drink is to Vietnamese culture. Most of the country's coffee beans come from the hills around Da Lat in the south. Traditionally, they are roasted with rice wine, butter and salt. Many locals swear that this process is what gives Vietnamese coffee its unique flavour.

Vietnamese coffee is filtered through a drip filter that sits on top of the cup, known as a phin. These filters are sold everywhere in Vietnam. They make a wonderful souvenir and also allow you to enjoy coffee the Vietnamese way back home. In many cafés, your coffee is served with this filter still in place.

It takes a little while for the coffee to filter through. A bit of patience is needed until all the liquid has trickled down into the cup. Repeat the process by running water through the filter at least once more, so you can enjoy a full cup. You'll often be given a free glass of cold tea as a refreshment while you wait for the coffee to be ready.

With its uniquely roasted beans and its special drip filter, coffee in Vietnam is markedly different from coffee in the rest of the world. Perhaps because of the humid climate, it's also very popular here as iced coffee served with ice cubes. Another distinctive feature is that white coffee is served with condensed milk, which makes it very strong and very sweet.

Alongside the classics, Vietnam also offers a number of other fascinating coffee variations, hot and cold, white and black. The best known is probably egg coffee (Cà phê trứng), in which egg yolk is whisked together with condensed milk into a light, airy foam. This type of coffee was invented in Hanoi in the early 20th century, when milk was scarce and eggs were used as a substitute. Egg coffee tastes almost like a dessert and is something you absolutely must try in Vietnam.

On our trips we visit a little-known, family-run café belonging to the very family the original recipe comes from. It's tucked away down a hidden alleyway and is frequented mainly by locals. We won't give away any more details here, though, because we don't want to spoil the surprise! So you'll just have to come along with us to find out more!

We also have to mention Cà phê dừa: coconut coffee. Here the condensed milk is blended with coconut milk to create a kind of coffee shake – refreshing, tropical and typically Vietnamese! An equally exquisite treat is yoghurt coffee (Sữa chua cà phê), made from yoghurt mixed with fresh fruit and a shot of coffee.

One of the most unusual coffees in the world is Cà phê chồn, known back home as 'weasel coffee'. It's a truly exclusive variety, as it's made from beans that have been eaten by common palm civets. These civets supposedly eat only the very best beans, which are then half-digested and excreted, before being collected, washed, dried in the sun and finally roasted. Coffee connoisseurs swear by the particularly full-bodied, mild and slightly chocolatey flavour of Cà phê chồn. If you'd like to taste it for yourself, you can buy these very special beans all over Vietnam.

Please note: take care when choosing weasel coffee, and make sure it comes from a sustainable source with good animal welfare.

Coffee menus in Vietnam aren't hard to read. If you memorise a few basic words, you'll be ordering your coffee like a local in no time. You can also ask for more milk (cà phê bạc xỉu) if the coffee is too strong for you, or less sugar (ít đường) if you'd rather it wasn't so sweet.

The most important terms are:

Throughout Vietnam you'll find countless fascinating cafés, whether with low tables, chairs out on the pavement or interiors decorated around a particular theme. One café that's popular right across Vietnam is decked out with relics from the communist era. Others feature vintage furniture, record players and old televisions and telephones, so you feel as though you've stepped straight into old Saigon.

On our trips we take a scooter tour through Ho Chi Minh City and stop off at a converted apartment block that now houses cafés, bookshops and restaurants, to enjoy a lovely cup of coffee in truly unique surroundings.

In Hanoi, part of the Hai Ba Trung district is also known as 'Coffee Street', because its streets have a higher concentration of cafés than anywhere else in the country. But wherever you are in Vietnam, a café is never far away. And while you're bound to have your favourite coffees before long, every single variety is a real experience and promises first-class coffee enjoyment.

"Hello! My name is Andrew and I'm your personal travel specialist. I look forward to welcoming you here to us in South-East Asia, and I promise you that the smiles of the locals will soon put a smile on your face too."

With travel-loving greetings from Bangkok, Andrew Greiner