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Iced · Easy · 8 minutes

Cà phê sữa đá

Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk
Cà phê sữa đá is all about contrast: dark, almost syrupy robusta and thick, sweetened condensed milk, served ice cold. The phin drips slowly, so the coffee comes out strong enough that the milk and the melting ice do not water it down.
  • 20 g
    Coffee
  • 80 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.
    80 ml
  • Sweetened condensed milk
    The sugar and the milk in one. Evaporated milk is not a substitute, because it is not sweetened.
    25 ml
  • Ice cubes
    Fill the glass generously. Vietnamese iced coffee is served properly cold.
    6

Equipment

Steps

  • Add the condensed milk

    25 ml
    Spoon the sweetened condensed milk into your heatproof glass. It goes in first, so the hot coffee drips straight onto it and starts to loosen it.

  • Add the coffee

    20 g
    Set the phin on the glass and add the ground coffee to the chamber. Give it a gentle shake so the coffee sits level.

  • Place the filter plate

    Lay the filter plate on the coffee and press down lightly. Level and gentle, nothing more. Press hard and nothing will drip.
    Tip
    Does your phin have a screw-down plate? Turn it until you feel a little resistance, then stop.

  • Wet the grounds

    20 ml
    Pour just enough hot water to cover the coffee. The coffee swells and lets out trapped gas. After that, the water flows through evenly.

  • Let it bloom

    ± 30 s
    Wait while the coffee swells. You may see it dome slightly, and you will start to smell the coffee.

  • Fill the phin

    60 ml
    Top the phin up with the rest of the hot water and put the lid on. The lid keeps the heat in, so the coffee brews evenly.

  • Let it drip

    ± 4 min
    Now wait. A well-packed phin drips slowly and steadily. If it runs through in under two minutes, the coffee will be weak. If nothing comes out at all, lift the filter plate slightly.

  • Stir it together

    Lift the phin off and stir until the milk has fully dissolved. The colour goes from dark brown to an even caramel.

  • Pour over ice

    6 cubes
    Fill your serving glass with ice and pour the coffee over it. Drink it straight away. It is best before the ice has melted.

Flavour

Background

Where it comes from

Iced milk coffee is everyday coffee all over Vietnam, especially in the hot south. You buy it from stalls with plastic stools on Saigon's pavements and from glass cabinets in Hanoi's alleys, and almost every seller has their own ratio. Sweetened condensed milk became coffee's standard partner during the French colonial period, when fresh milk was hard to keep. It stayed because it simply works.
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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