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Iced · Medium · 12 minutes

Cà phê dừa

Vietnamese coconut coffee
For cà phê dừa you blend coconut milk with ice into a slush and pour strong, sweetened coffee on top. It is all about texture. The blended coconut is thick enough to hold the coffee in a dark layer on top, so you get two colours in the glass until you stir. It is sweet, but the robusta is bitter enough to balance it.
  • 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
  • Coconut milk
    Full-fat tinned coconut milk. The fat is what turns it into a slush you can scoop. Coconut water or coconut drink from a carton just gives you ice shards.
    100 ml
  • Sweetened condensed milk
    The sugar and the milk in one. Evaporated milk is not a substitute, because it is not sweetened.
    20 ml
  • Ice cubes
    Fill the glass generously. Vietnamese iced coffee is served properly cold.
    8

Equipment

Steps

  • Add the coffee

    20 g
    Put the ground coffee into the phin and shake it level. Brew it strong. A lot of cold, sweet coconut is going with it.

  • Place the filter plate

    Lay the filter plate on the coffee and press down lightly.

  • Wet the grounds

    18 ml
    Pour just enough hot water to cover the coffee.

  • Let it bloom

    ± 30 s
    Wait while the coffee swells.

  • Fill the phin

    55 ml
    Top up with the rest of the hot water and put the lid on.

  • Let it drip

    ± 4 min
    Wait while the coffee drips into the glass. Meanwhile, put the coconut milk and the ice in the blender. Do not blend until the coffee is ready, or the slush will melt.

  • Sweeten the coffee

    20 ml
    Stir the sweetened condensed milk into the hot coffee until it dissolves. Do it now, while the coffee is hot. Condensed milk will not dissolve in anything cold.

  • Blend the coconut

    100 ml
    Blend the coconut milk with all the ice until it is thick and smooth, like a soft sorbet. It should be thick enough to scoop, not thin enough to pour.
    Tip
    Too runny? Add more ice, not more coconut milk. Too stiff to get into the glass? A splash of coconut milk loosens it. For a richer version, blend in a scoop of coconut ice cream.

  • Pour the coffee onto the coconut

    Spoon the coconut slush into a tall glass. Pour the coffee slowly over the back of a spoon so it sits on top. If you pour gently, the coffee stays a dark layer and does not mix in.

  • Serve with a straw

    Serve it straight away, with a straw and a long spoon. Stir it yourself, or drink down through the layers. Both are fine.
    Tip
    Sprinkle a spoonful of toasted coconut flakes on top. That is how the cafés in Hội An do it, and it stops the top looking bare.

Flavour

Background

Where it comes from

Coconut coffee is a modern drink and does not pretend otherwise. It caught on in Hội An and along the central coast, in cafés for tourists, and then made its way into the Vietnamese coffee chains, where it is now on almost every menu. Purists turn their noses up at it. Everyone else orders it in the afternoon heat.
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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