How to Use a Vietnamese Drip Filter? Can It Be Used for Pour-Over Coffee Brewing?

Most regions have their own characteristic coffee pots. While they may not have been invented locally, they were certainly popularized there! For example, Ethiopia's ceramic coffee pot, the Turkish ibrik that continuously releases coffee liquid, the Italian moka pot we just discussed in the previous article, and now the protagonist of this article—the Vietnamese Phin filter.

The Vietnamese Phin filter (also known as Vietnamese drip filter) is an essential tool for making Vietnamese condensed milk coffee. It consists of three main parts: the chamber that holds coffee grounds and hot water, a press plate that compresses the coffee grounds, and a lid that doubles as a base.

The Origin of the Vietnamese Phin Filter

The exact origin of the Vietnamese Phin filter cannot be precisely traced. On the internet, the widely circulated description is this: it already existed when Vietnam first started growing coffee! It's important to note that Vietnam's coffee cultivation began in the late 19th century during the French colonial period. This means its creation predates this period, as Vietnam was just beginning to grow coffee then and wouldn't have been inventing coffee brewing devices. Therefore, based on various inferences, the final conclusion reached online is that "while this Phin filter carries Vietnam's name, it was not actually invented in Vietnam."

Vietnamese Condensed Milk Coffee

Although Vietnam achieved great success in coffee cultivation and quickly joined the ranks of major coffee-producing countries, because the main bean variety grown is Robusta, the locally extracted coffee generally tastes bitter and strong! This led people in Vietnam not to expect excellent floral and fruit aromas in their coffee—as long as the coffee wasn't bitter and was drinkable, it was sufficient. Therefore, they came up with the idea of adding condensed milk to coffee to neutralize the bitterness of Robusta beans. Unexpectedly, this practice was widely loved, and at that time, Vietnamese condensed milk coffee vendors could be found on every street corner.

How to Use the Vietnamese Phin Filter

Next is how to use the Vietnamese Phin filter, which is also very simple. FrontStreet Coffee's extraction parameters are as follows:

Beans used: Indonesia · Golden Mandheling
Amount used: 10g (because FrontStreet Coffee's Phin filter is for small cups)
Grind setting: EK43 setting 11, with 65% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Brewing water temperature: 90°C

The traditional method is to add coffee grounds to the chamber, press them flat with the press plate, then pour in the target amount of hot water all at once, and simply cover with the lid and wait for the coffee liquid to finish dripping through the holes! It takes 3 minutes, and the extracted flavor is very balanced without any unpleasant sensations.

However, it has one drawback: the gaps in the holes are too large, often allowing fine powder to drip through along with the coffee. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends placing a layer of filter paper at the bottom when using it, which can reduce the unpleasant sensations caused by fine powder. If you want to make Vietnamese condensed milk coffee, simply add your preferred amount of condensed milk to the bottom of the cup (FrontStreet Coffee adds 8ml of condensed milk per 100ml of coffee liquid).

Wait, why does it look somewhat like a pour-over drip cone? This suddenly gave FrontStreet Coffee a bold idea: if we use the pour-over method for brewing, what kind of characteristics would the coffee have? Great! Let's brew it right away! The extraction parameters are as follows:

Beans used: Kenya · Assalia
Amount used: 10g
Grind setting: EK43 setting 10, with 70% pass-through rate on #20 sieve
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Brewing water temperature: 92°C
Pouring method: Three-stage pour

First, pour twice the amount of water as the grounds (20ml) for a 30-second bloom. After the bloom ends, slowly pour in a large circular motion the second stage of 80ml of hot water. When the water level is about to reach the bottom, slowly pour in the remaining 50ml of hot water in another large circular motion, then wait for the dripping to finish.

The total time was 3 minutes and 5 seconds. Although it steeped for so long, there were no over-extracted bitter flavors. Kenya's black plum and tomato flavors were well-expressed, but overall it was somewhat "flat," lacking distinct layered sensations. But that's okay; this was just a fun experiment, and it's always good to try the diversity of brewing equipment!

- END -

FrontStreet Coffee
No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473