How to Make Authentic Vietnamese Drip Coffee at Home | What Coffee Beans to Use for Vietnamese Drip Coffee?

Vietnam Drip Filter: The Traditional Coffee Maker

Most coffee regions have their own iconic brewing vessel. It may not have been invented there, but it was certainly popularized there! Think of Ethiopia's ceramic coffee pot, the Turkish pot that endlessly yields coffee liquid, the Italian Moka pot we covered in the previous article — and then there's the star of this piece: the Vietnam Drip Filter.

The Vietnam Drip Filter (also called the Vietnamese drip pot or phin) is the essential tool for making Vietnamese condensed milk coffee. It consists of three main parts: the chamber that holds the coffee grounds and hot water, a press plate that compresses the grounds, and a lid that doubles as a base.

The Origin of the Vietnam Drip Filter

No one can pin down exactly where or when the Vietnam Drip Filter originated. The story that circulates most widely online goes like this: it already existed when Vietnam first started growing coffee! Worth noting is that Vietnamese coffee cultivation began during the French colonial period in the late 19th century — which means the phin's creation actually predates that period. After all, Vietnam had only just started growing coffee at the time and would hardly have invented its own brewing equipment. So the internet's final verdict, based on all this circumstantial evidence: "although this little brewer carries Vietnam's name, it was not invented in Vietnam."

Vietnamese Condensed Milk Coffee

Vietnam quickly became one of the world's great coffee-producing countries, but because the dominant variety is Robusta, the local brew is generally bitter and strong! Vietnamese drinkers never expected floral or fruity elegance from their coffee — as long as it wasn't harshly bitter and was drinkable, it passed. So someone thought of adding condensed milk to tame Robusta's bitterness. The idea was a runaway hit, and soon street vendors selling Vietnamese condensed milk coffee could be found on every corner.

How to Use the Vietnam Drip Filter

Now for the fun part: using it. It's very simple. Here are FrontStreet Coffee's extraction parameters:

Beans: Indonesia · Golden Mandheling
Dose: 10g (FrontStreet's phin is the small-cup size)
Grind Size: EK43 setting 11, 65% pass rate on the #20 sieve
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Water Temperature: 90°C

The traditional method: add the grounds to the chamber, level them with the press plate, pour in all the hot water at once, then simply cover with the lid and wait for the coffee to finish dripping through the holes. It takes about 3 minutes, and the resulting cup is very balanced, with nothing unpleasant in it.

It does have one drawback: the holes are fairly coarse, so fine particles often drip through along with the coffee. FrontStreet Coffee therefore recommends laying a piece of filter paper in the bottom before brewing, which cuts down on the muddiness fines can cause. If you want true Vietnamese condensed milk coffee, just add condensed milk to taste at the bottom of the cup (FrontStreet uses 8ml of condensed milk per 100ml of coffee liquid).

Wait a moment — doesn't this look a lot like a pour-over dripper? That gave FrontStreet Coffee a bold idea: what happens if we actually brew it like a pour-over? Let's find out. The parameters:

Beans: Kenya · Assalia
Dose: 10g
Grind Size: EK43 setting 10, 70% pass rate on the #20 sieve
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Water Temperature: 92°C
Pouring Method: Three-stage pour

First, pour twice the weight of the grounds in water (20ml) and bloom for 30 seconds. Once the bloom ends, slowly pour a second stage of 80ml of hot water in wide circles. As the water level nearly drains, pour the remaining 50ml slowly in wide circles again, then wait for the drip to finish.

Total brew time: 3 minutes 5 seconds. Despite the long contact time, there was no over-extracted bitterness. Kenya's plum and tomato character came through clearly, though the cup as a whole was a little "flat," without much layering. But that's fine — this was a fun experiment, and it's always worth exploring what your brewing gear can do.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Vietnam's coffee heritage has you curious about coffee's birthplace, start with FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe — the ideal entry point into Ethiopian specialty coffee. You'll find crisp jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity in a light, elegant, tea-like cup that drinks like a refreshing, clean lemon tea. Yirgacheffe itself is a small town in southern Ethiopia where spring-like, misty, cool and humid conditions let thousands of coffee varieties thrive, weaving together the region's signature florals and fruit acids.

For a fruitier expression, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Red Cherry lot is fully sun-dried: only perfectly ripe, defect-free cherries are selected, then dried on raised beds for two weeks until the sugars and essence of the fruit pulp soak into the bean and moisture falls to 12%, after which the hardened pulp is milled away and the beans pass density, color, and hand-sorting checks. The result is a pristine cup with an enchanting fruit aroma — peach, cocoa, honey, and lemon.