How To Make Vietnamese Coffee With Filter

If you’ve ever been to Vietnam, then you’ve seen a café on just about every corner of the streets. That was surprising to us on our first trip to Vietnam. 

Yet, after we discovered Vietnam was the second largest coffee producing nation in the world… we understood why there are so many coffee shops and cafes here!

Paul and I do love our coffee… And for us, we’d have to say that Vietnam has some of the best coffee we’ve tasted in our time!

When we stayed at an apartment in Nha Trang, the owner gave us a gift of a Vietnamese drip coffee filter like this one…

The phin coffee filter is made up of 4 parts:

The base, chamber, filter, and lid…

What we love about the phin Vietnamese coffee filter, is that because it’s compact… we can take it anywhere on our travels. We just need to find good coffee wherever we go!

So having been to the local markets, we narrowed the choice to a robusta coffee. Although we’ve traveled in different parts of Vietnam, we’ve managed to find this wherever we go. It’s aromatic and strong.

In this blog post, we’ll share with you how to make Vietnamese coffee with filter, called phin. 

So let’s get started!

What You’ll Need To Make The Vietnamese Coffee

So to make the coffee, here’s what you need:

  • Phin coffee filter – we use stainless steel rather than aluminium
  • Kettle – or something to boil water
  • Tablespoon
  • Heat proof clear glass or cup 
  • Ground coffee – we like Mê Trang Robusta coffee
  • Water

Step 1

Put the base on top of the glass…

Step 2

Then put the chamber on top of the base…

Step 3

Put your desired amount of coffee into the chamber. We use about 1 tablespoon. Use the spoon to spread the coffee evenly.

Step 4

Put the filter on top of the coffee and press firmly…

Step 5

Boil the water and put the water into the chamber. You should start to see the coffee drip through the filter.

Step 6

Put the lid onto the chamber to help keep the heat in.

Step 7

Check the water levels through the glass… And take the lid off to check how much water is in the chamber. Add more water if you need to top it up.

Remember to check on the coffee every so often. The coffee will be ready when the dripping stops and the chamber is empty. After a few minutes your Vietnamese coffee will be ready!

So there you have it! Your step by step guide on how to make a Vietnamese coffee with filter.

There are plenty of variations to this coffee that you can have, including

  • Ca phe da- black coffee with ice
  • Ca phe sua da – black coffee with ice and condensed milk. I do like this every now and again… It’s a sweet, delicious coffee treat!
  • Ca phe trung – black coffee with egg yolk and condensed milk
  • Sinh to ca phe chuoi bo – black coffee blended with avocado and banana 

Whatever your flavor, get our there and enjoy the amazing coffee Vietnam has to offer.

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