How to Drink Vietnamese Drip Coffee? Can You Drink Drip Coffee Directly?

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Drip Coffee Extraction

The basic principle of drip coffee brewing involves pouring hot water over ground coffee, allowing the water to pass through once and drip the coffee out. Typically, if using paper filters, the colloids in the coffee will also be filtered out, resulting in clear and clean coffee.

Drip coffee extraction machines or methods:

• Cold drip
• Pour-over / Drip cone
• Electric coffee maker / American coffee machine

Flavor profile:

Coffee extracted using this method has a clean and bright color with no off-flavors, a relatively refreshing taste, but a thinner body (Body). It's suitable for people who prefer to drink black coffee straight.

High-Pressure Extraction

High-pressure brewing is commonly known as espresso extraction. It uses an espresso machine to generate high-pressure hot water, utilizing the penetrating power of high pressure to extract a thick coffee liquid.

High-pressure extraction machines:

• Moka pot
• Espresso machine

Flavor profile:

When espresso is mixed with milk, it becomes the latte that everyone knows. You can also foam fresh milk for latte art. This series of Italian coffee variations creates cappuccinos, caramel macchiatos, and other coffee drinks.

Immersion Brewing

Immersion coffee brewing is similar to drip brewing, but includes an additional step of soaking the coffee grounds. Therefore, as you can imagine, the coffee's flavor will be richer than drip brewing.

Immersion brewing machines:

• Siphon
• Belgian coffee maker
• French press

Flavor profile:

Generally speaking, it will be richer in taste than drip brewing, but this still depends on the actual coffee machine used.

Vietnamese Drip Coffee Pot

Coffee brewed with an aluminum Vietnamese pot will taste sweeter (similar to the aluminum Moka pot), but the disadvantage is that it's not sturdy and easily deformed.

Stainless steel ones are very sturdy, but compared to aluminum ones, the coffee brewed will lack that sweet and fragrant quality.

Stainless steel version. The main difference between new and old models is whether the pressure plate can be fixed. As you can see with this one, there's an iron rod with threads protruding from the middle of the pot. Just place the pressure plate on the right side and turn it a few times to lock it in place.

I personally quite enjoy using new Vietnamese pots to brew specialty beans. Like French press, the full body of the coffee itself can be completely preserved. However, the disadvantage is the same - there will always be some coffee grounds in the coffee.

But compared to French press, Vietnamese pots can use filter paper. If you don't like grounds, just buy the round siphon filter paper with a hole in the middle. However, filter paper will make the coffee's body thinner. Personally, I think if you're going to do that, you might as well just drink pour-over coffee.

Vietnamese pots have a long extraction time, so it's recommended not to grind the coffee too fine. For the Small Flying Eagle, a setting of 3-4 is recommended (Vietnamese commercially sold coffee powder has a similar coarseness). If ground too fine, it's easy to over-extract, and the coffee will become bitter and astringent.

The difficulty people have with new Vietnamese pots is probably mostly with the pressure plate. Be careful not to lock the pressure plate completely. Generally, turn it until you feel it lightly pressing against the coffee grounds (in colloquial terms, when it feels a bit tight), then turn it back a few turns to create space between the pressure plate and coffee grounds, allowing room for the coffee grounds to expand during brewing.

This can be said to be the key to making good coffee. There are roughly two types of failure scenarios:

1. Too little space is loosened, so when the coffee grounds expand during brewing, they fill the entire space, blocking the filter holes, prolonging extraction time, or preventing coffee from dripping into the cup, making the coffee bitter and astringent.

2. Too much space is loosened, the drip speed is too fast, extraction is insufficient, the coffee is too weak, and lacks a rich mouthfeel.

Honestly, this is quite difficult and requires experience to master (loosening 2-5 turns are all possible), and you can't see the expansion situation. But if you get it right, the flavor is truly exceptional.

If you're interested and trying Vietnamese pots for the first time, I personally suggest getting an old model to practice with first. The old model just places the pressure plate directly on top of the coffee grounds without fixing it in place, so when the coffee grounds expand after adding water, they naturally push the pressure plate up. Therefore, the first failure scenario mentioned above won't happen, making it easier to control.

Waiting for it to slowly finish dripping is truly a leisurely brewing device. For impatient people like me, I still prefer pour-over coffee...

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

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