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Hot · Easy · 7 minutes

Cà phê sữa nóng

Vietnamese hot milk coffee
Cà phê sữa nóng is not just the iced version without the ice. Nothing melts into the glass to dilute the coffee, so you use less water. That gives you a small, full glass of coffee that is closer to a cortado than to a long coffee.
  • 20 g
    Coffee
  • 70 ml
    Water
  • 4:00
    Drip
Next time, this recipe opens like this.

Ingredients

  • Sweetened condensed milk
    The sugar and the milk in one. Evaporated milk is not a substitute, because it is not sweetened.
    20 ml
  • 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

Equipment

Steps

  • Warm the glass

    Rinse the glass with a little hot water and pour it out. A cold glass takes a lot of heat out of so little coffee, and you will be drinking this one slowly.

  • Add the condensed milk

    20 ml
    Spoon the sweetened condensed milk into the warm glass. It goes in first, so the hot coffee drips 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.

  • Wet the grounds

    18 ml
    Pour just enough hot water to cover the coffee. The water should be just off the boil, around 92 to 96 °C.

  • 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. You use less water than for the iced version, because nothing melts into this one.

  • Let it drip

    ± 4 min
    Wait while the coffee drips into the glass. Keep the lid on, or the coffee cools down without you noticing.
    Tip
    Cafés in Hanoi stand the glass in a shallow bowl of hot water while it drips. That keeps the coffee hot.

  • 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.

  • Drink it hot

    Serve it straight away in the small glass, and drink it slowly.

Flavour

Background

Where it comes from

Hot milk coffee belongs to the north, and to winter. Hanoi really does get cold, and from November you see the small glasses everywhere, often standing in a bowl of hot water to keep them warm. Order one in Saigon in July and you will get it, along with a surprised look.
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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