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The coffee
1 min read
Vietnam grows mostly robusta, and Vietnamese coffee is built around it. Robusta is more bitter and less acidic than arabica, with roughly twice the caffeine. It is strong enough not to disappear under ice and sweetened condensed milk. A light arabica in a phin tastes thin and slightly sour. Not wrong, but not the same thing.
Look for a dark roast sold as Vietnamese coffee or as a phin grind. Blends with a little arabica are common and good. Some traditional roasts are finished with butter or fish sauce. That sounds alarming, but mostly you taste it as a faint sweetness.
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