How to Make Vietnamese Coffee - Is Vietnamese Coffee Good? Price per Pound

Vietnamese Coffee: Robusta, Condensed Milk, and Ice

In recent years Vietnam has become a rising tourist destination — book a short holiday and you can be flying off for a bowl of refreshing seafood pho and a glass of Vietnamese coffee.

The marriage of intense black coffee and sweet condensed milk is quietly addictive; it grabs you from the very first sip.

Vietnam is not a country you immediately associate with coffee, yet coffee is not only one of its major economic crops but an indispensable part of everyday life. What comes to mind first when someone says "Vietnamese coffee beans"?

Exactly — full-bodied Robusta beans and condensed milk, combined in just the right proportions into a mysterious yet harmonious pairing.

Traditional Vietnamese coffee is genuinely bitter, which is why the Vietnamese pioneered drinking it with condensed milk — a fix for everyone who never dared drink coffee black. For an authentic taste, roast the beans to a medium or dark roast. Vietnamese palates run strong: raised on coffee this intense, many find lattes and cappuccinos simply too watery.

A Vietnamese Coffee Recipe, Step by Step

What you'll need:

A single-serve pour-over filter cup (the classic Vietnamese phin)

Specialty coffee beans, medium-dark roast

A hand grinder

Glass cups (320 ml), two

Condensed milk, to taste

One spoon

Ice cubes, plenty (Vietnam's heat means Vietnamese coffee is mostly served iced)

Step One

Add the condensed milk: spoon 3–4 small teaspoons into the glass. Don't overdo it — start with a little as the base; you can always add more later if it isn't sweet enough.

Step Two

Set the filter cup on top of the glass and add about 3 small teaspoons of coffee, ground fairly coarse — about French press grind. Give the filter cup a gentle shake to level the grounds.

Step Three

Pour in two stages. First, a small amount of 96°C–100°C water to bloom; wait about 30 seconds for the grounds to saturate and swell, at which point dripping begins.

Then pour again until the cup is about 5/6 full, and let the coffee filter through slowly.

Stir the condensed milk and coffee together thoroughly with the spoon.

Finally, pour over a glass full of ice — done!

Simple, right? In just a few minutes you're drinking proper Vietnamese coffee. And with Vietnam right next door, there's no reason you can't go taste the original for yourself on your next short break.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Vietnamese coffee lives or dies on the roast, and dark roast is where FrontStreet Coffee's lineup shines. The FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is the classic choice for anyone who loves a strong, heavy cup: sorted three times by hand and machine to drive the defect rate way down, it loses the earthy muddiness and shows a solid, clean herbal-spice character with the low acidity and full body that dark roasting brings — and that signature bitter-then-sweet finish. The FrontStreet Colombia Huila, roasted medium-dark, highlights black chocolate aroma and a caramel-laced finish at 1500 m-plus southern elevations with delicate acidity and berry tones. The FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate, medium-dark, leans toward nuts and cocoa with caramel and hazelnut, and through a moka pot or espresso machine it releases a rich crema that makes a silky, sweet latte. And for a true espresso workhorse, the FrontStreet Classic Espresso Blend — built on the old "Mandheling plus Brazil" pairing with Robusta added — boosts crema and body, making it ideal for home lattes and latte art, and a natural fit for brewing Vietnamese-style over condensed milk and ice.