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Hot · Easy · 7 minutes

Cà phê đen nóng

Vietnamese hot black coffee
Cà phê đen nóng is the phin doing its job with nothing added: dark, full and hot, in a glass smaller than you expect. It is closer to a long espresso than to filter coffee. You use less water than for the iced version, because nothing melts into it. If you brew the đen đá amounts and drink them hot, it tastes watery. That is a common mistake.
  • 20 g
    Coffee
  • 70 ml
    Water
  • 4:00
    Drip
Next time, this recipe opens like this.

Ingredients

  • Vietnamese ground coffee
    A dark-roast robusta, or a blend of robusta and arabica. Ground for a phin: a little coarser than for espresso.
    20 g
  • Hot water
    Just off the boil, around 92 to 96 °C. Boiling water scorches robusta and makes the coffee bitter.
    70 ml
  • Cane sugar (optional)
    Optional. Stir it into the hot coffee, or it will not dissolve and will sit at the bottom.
    6 g

Equipment

Steps

  • Warm the glass

    Rinse the glass with a little hot water and pour it out. It is a small drink. In a cold glass it cools down faster than you would think.

  • Add the coffee

    20 g
    Put the ground coffee into the phin and shake it level. Nothing else goes in, so this is the whole drink.

  • Place the filter plate

    Lay the filter plate on the coffee and press down lightly. Press evenly. Press harder on one side and the water finds the looser side and rushes through there.

  • Wet the grounds

    18 ml
    Pour just enough hot water to cover the coffee. Just off the boil, never boiling. There is no milk here to hide scorched robusta.

  • Let it bloom

    ± 30 s
    Wait while the coffee swells and releases its gas.

  • Fill the phin

    55 ml
    Top up with the rest of the hot water and put the lid on. You use less water than for the iced version, because nothing melts into this one.

  • Let it drip

    ± 4 min
    Now wait. About one drop a second, four to five minutes in all.
    Tip
    Keep the lid on, or the coffee cools down without you noticing.

  • Sweeten it if you like

    6 g
    Want it sweet? Stir the sugar in now, while the coffee is hot enough to dissolve it. In the north the sugar is on the table, but nobody puts it in for you. Skip this step if you drink it black.

  • Drink it hot

    Serve it straight away, in the small glass. Drink it slowly. There is not much of it, and it is not meant to be finished quickly.

Flavour

Background

Where it comes from

Black and hot is the norm in the north, and Hanoi's pavement cafés run on it: a small glass, a low stool and a pot of free tea beside it. Sugar is there if you want it, but nobody puts it in for you. That says a lot about the difference between north and south.
Every café, family and region in Vietnam makes coffee a little differently. Treat these amounts as a good starting point, not a rule.
These amounts are new, and we are still fine-tuning them.

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