VACATIONS FROM HOME: COFFEE IN VIETNAM

A NECESSITY
Egg Coffee, Hanoi

To say we are coffee snobs is an understatement. We have Diamond Head Roast from Lion Coffee shipped in from Oahu monthly. When we travel, we like to visit coffee plantations.

Janet is comatose without her daily cup, and I’ve given up trying to move her along first thing in the morning. Personally, I have drunk so much coffee in my life I’m practically immune to the effects of caffeine. I’ve been known to drink a cup of coffee at night and then go to sleep.

Part of the joy in traveling is drinking coffee like the locals, whether it’s a strong bitter Italian espresso standing at a café bar, or a Barriquito while relaxing at a Tenerife seaside café. At home we have a milk frothing device and a chorreador from Costa Rica and a cold drip glass contraption. We can roast our own beans. Of course we have a French Press…please.

LION COFFEE, HONOLULU

HISTORY

Vietnam is the world’s largest exporter of Robusta coffee and the second largest producer of coffee in the entire world after Brazil. The first Arabica coffee plants were brought to the country by French missionaries in the mid-1800s and thrived in the warm humid climate. At the turn of the century the Robusta coffee bean was introduced and in the central Highlands coffee became a cash crop and spurred a thriving industry, especially after the Doi Moi reforms began in 1986 and the Communists allowed private enterprise coffee.

JITTERY?

a phin hard at work

But enough of history! The Vietnamese love their coffee as much as we do, and it is impossible to get a bad cup anywhere. The most popular way of drinking the elixir of the gods is Cà phê sua dá, or Iced Milk Coffee, which doesn’t sound any different than what we get at home. It is in the preparation though that makes this Vietnamese ambrosia stand apart.

PHIN ME

Each cup is individually brewed with a Vietnamese Phin drip filter that sits atop a glass with condensed milk. Ground Robusta coffee is put in the Phin, pressed down to compact it and then hot water poured in and allowed to drip slowly creating a strong brew. The ratio of coffee to condensed milk is personal to taste. Add ice! On a hot day this is quite refreshing. It’s great even without condensed milk, or without ice.

SPECIALTY COFFEE

Cà phê sua dá is used as the base for specialty coffees, and nearly every town we visited during our recent trip to Vietnam had their own twist on this very very necessary divine nectar. Here’s a list of the coffees we tried.

Hanoi:

Egg Coffee –

Invented by the bartender at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in the mid-40s. Fresh milk was scarce then, but he discovered that whipped egg yolks created a delicate froth that combined well with condensed milk and coffee. The concoction was a hit, and he left the hotel to open Café Giang that is now run by his son.

The egg yolks need to be thoroughly beaten and are “cooked” by the hot coffee reducing any food concerns.

Coconut Coffee -

Coconut coffee

Brain freeze! This indulgent drink combines strong Vietnamese coffee with coconut milk and a splash of condensed milk to make this a tropical flavor that you will gulp down on a hot afternoon (we did). Topped with toasted coconut shavings! Oh my.

Hue

Salt Coffee -

This is very popular in Hue, the former capital of Vietnam. At first this strong coffee combined with condensed milk and topped by a salted cream seemed like an odd combination, but on a hot sweaty afternoon in Hue it was surprisingly refreshing.

Salt coffee, Hue

Hoi An

Durian Coffee -

a Durian

In this UNESCO heritage city, the city of lanterns, we had coffee mixed with the notorious Durian fruit. Durian has a strong, noxious smell, but combined with coffee was okay.

Nha Trang

Flan coffee-

Flan coffee,
Nha Trang

Across the street from the Em Oi Hotel, where we stayed while visiting the very touristed town of Nha Trang is the Café Here. It was here we had Flan coffee which is literally a flan floated atop a creamy strong coffee. Vietnamese flan differs from Mexican in its firmer denser consistency but makes a surprisingly wonderful coffee!

Black Iced coffee at the Birdwatching Café

A stop during our tour of Nha Trang, a popular resort with Russian and Chinese tourists, was the Birdwatching Café. No more than an empty lot where men would come with their pet birds and hang the cages so the birds could chatter as they had a coffee.

Black coffee at the
Birdwatching Cafe

We were offered coffee with or without condensed milk, over ice. I chose black.

THE REAL SHIT

Dalat

The Asian Palm Civet is like a weasel, and it shits out coffee beans. Back during the colonial times coffee became a cash crop for the French and the Vietnamese working the farms were not allowed to drink the profits. These workers discovered partially digested coffee beans in the poop of the civet. Rinsing them off and preparing them the workers found the coffee was better than beans taken directly from the plant. Turns out the civet has a very discerning palate and will only eat the ripest coffee cherries. Unripe beans or even beans from a sick tree will not be touched.

The actual coffee bean is in the middle of the cherry. As the beans pass through the digestive tract they are partially fermented and altering the taste.

Weasel shit coffee

Shit-faced?

The coffee is rich and smooth, but only if you can get beyond thinking about the processing of the bean. Collecting weasel poop is labor intensive and the cost reflects this. We visited the Ca phe chon in the central highlands near Dalat to see their 5-acre organic farm with 150 captive civets in massive enclosures to witness the first step in this coffee adventure. We then got to sample the end product with our own phin.

The people of Vietnam have been known to eat Civets and poaching is a problem. There is also a process of fermenting the beans without the use of civet’s GI tract, mimicking closely the flavor.

I bought a small bag of coffee from Ca Phe Chon Dalat to bring home. It was the most expensive item I purchased in my entire trip to the country.

CA PHE CHON DALAT

Time for a coffee break.

Thanks for reading.

Love Janet and greg