Coffee in Vietnam

Hi all
As I like to drink coffee everyday at least 3 times additional to my morning coffees, I have realised that the Vietnamese coffee, coz its made out of the round Robusta beans, has a strong and rather bitter taste in comparison to the oval Arabica coffee available in Europe and the USA etc.
Thats why the good coffee shops here in HCMC also grind the coffee beans just right before they serve the coffee, which comes in those little filters on top of the coffee cup from where it will run down slowly into the cup.
Usually they give with it the sugar separately so you can add as much as you feel like to overcome the bitterness.
Of course if you wonna have that little coffee foam, as we are used to have it in the West, than only a high pressure coffee machine can do that.
But I really love the coffee here, coz its natural and pure.
I always drink my coffee at a little coffeehouse called "Legend",  just about 100 meters after the Ly Ching Tangh Street meets Hai Ba Trung Street in District 1.
Try it once, it's worth it.
Cheers
ErnieCH

hphansva wrote:

***

Too sweet?  Don't put condensed milk in your coffee.  It's your coffee, doctor it any which way you want, or drink it black.  There's no law that says you have to drink it sweet.

Not much coffee?  A 6-oz cup of VIetnamese Robusta coffee contains 200mg of caffeine.  A shot of Illy, the best Italian espresso, has 60mg.  The smallest size Starbucks Pike Roast is 12oz, twice larger than a cup of Vietnamese coffee, and contains 235mg.  Your recommendation, "instant coffee <shudder> as the closest to regular coffee"?  45mg.

Look at the numbers to see which one has the most caffeine.

As the EFSA advises that no more than 400mg of caffeine should be consumed per day, two cups of Vietnamese coffee would give a person the maximum kick without endangering his/her health.

Cereal and oatmeal are hard to find in Saigon?  Last year, I visited Annam Market only twice as I'm not a fan of supermarkets and shopping centers that cater to expats.  On the second visit, I bought Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Oats and Oatmeal,  McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal, Nature Path's Flax Plus Organic Oatmeal and Pumpkin Flax Granola.  There are more than a dozen kinds of oatmeals from other brands, but Bob's Red Mill, McCann, and Nature Path are the only 3 brands I regularly consumed in the States, so I didn't pay attention to the rest.

Since moving to Vung Tau this year, I've seen McCann's at Lotte, and it's a not even a gourmet market as Annam.

Ciambella wrote:

hphansva wrote:

***

Too sweet?  Don't put condensed milk in your coffee.  It's your coffee, doctor it any which way you want, or drink it black.  There's no law that says you have to drink it sweet.

Not much coffee?  A 6-oz cup of VIetnamese Robusta coffee contains 200mg of caffeine.  A shot of Illy, the best Italian espresso, has 60mg.  The smallest size Starbucks Pike Roast is 12oz, twice larger than a cup of Vietnamese coffee, and contains 235mg.  Your recommendation, "instant coffee <shudder> as the closest to regular coffee"?  45mg.

Look at the numbers to see which one has the most caffeine.

As the EFSA advises that no more than 400mg of caffeine should be consumed per day, two cups of Vietnamese coffee would give a person the maximum kick without endangering his/her health.

Cereal and oatmeal are hard to find in Saigon?  Last year, I visited Annam Market only twice as I'm not a fan of supermarkets and shopping centers that cater to expats.  On the second visit, I bought Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Oats and Oatmeal,  McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal, Nature Path's Flax Plus Organic Oatmeal and Pumpkin Flax Granola.  There are more than a dozen kinds of oatmeals from other brands, but Bob's Red Mill, McCann, and Nature Path are the only 3 brands I regularly consumed in the States, so I didn't pay attention to the rest.

Since moving to Vung Tau this year, I've seen McCann's at Lotte, and it's a not even a gourmet market as Annam.

I love your answer!

hphansva wrote:

***

I've always said that coffee (like all food) is a matter of taste.
But that someone says Starbucks coffee is better than Vietnamese coffee, I can hardly believe. 
What Starbucks sells e.g. as "Americano" should not be allowed to be sold under the name of "coffee". Rather than black wast water.

Have you ever had a real coffee before? I mean outside of the USA?

For me, Vietnamese coffee is one of the best, next to the Italian.
I love Italian Expresso, but unfortunately it is offered in such small cups. 
In Vietnam I get such a strong coffee in big glasses where I can enjoy it in more than one sip.

I prefer to drink the Vietnamese coffee with little sugared condensed milk (the dosage is decisive).
The mobile street vendors which selling only coffee (I can't remember the name) sells the best Vietnamese coffe (iced) for me.
Only my homemade morning coffee (not iced) is better. 

Vietnamese coffee is great.
I enjoy it every day, several times per day.
i should maybe go and live in the highlands and grow coffee there.

If anybody's idea of good coffee is Starbucks, why are we even wasting on time on this conversation.

I've lived in Italy and other places in Europe where coffee is known, and have heard the same complaints from expats missing the water, milk swill known as Starbucks.

Too many expats spend time and effort to live overseas and then complain it's not home.

Have a wonderful life.

Starbucks= muddy water.

Wxx3 wrote:

If anybody's idea of good coffee is Starbucks, why are we even wasting on time on this conversation.

Too many expats spend time and effort to live overseas and then complain it's not home.

To be fair, hphansva, the person who said Starbucks and instant coffee are both better than Vietnamese coffee is not an expat.  He's a Vietnamese American who's living in the US.

BTW, hphansva, I just saw 3 different kinds of Kellogs cereals at a convenience store near me today.  Not even a supermarket, and American cereals are right there on the shelves, so there's no need for you to advise people to "bring ur own coffee and cereal/oatmeal.  Those things are hard to find."

I doubt anyone would listen to your advice and bring coal to Newcastle, or rather, bring their own coffee to Vietnam.

It amuses me every time when I see people standing in a line for long time for a coffee in the crowded Starbucks stores, while I enjoy the better coffee for a cheaper price in the small, quite coffee shop next door. 

Andy Passenger wrote:

It amuses me every time when I see people standing in a line for long time for a coffee in the crowded Starbucks stores, while I enjoy the better coffee for a cheaper price in the small, quite coffee shop next door. 

I remember passing by the New World hotel the day they opened the first one.  The line was out the door and around the block.  I am pretty certain that it is mostly just the caché of things American with the young Saigonese.

hphansva wrote:

if you drink it without the condensed milk it is very bitter

Robusta beans are the main beans used in Vietnamese coffee.  Robusta contains the highest level of caffeine, which is partly responsible for the bitterness.  In addition, Vietnamese coffee uses the kind of drip filter that takes longer brewing time than all other methods, and we all know that the longer brewing time, the more caffeine goes into the cup. 

Robusta beans in the long brewing Vietnamese filter is the reason condensed milk is needed: to balance out the high level of caffeine.

Ciambella wrote:

In addition, Vietnamese coffee uses the kind of drip filter that takes longer brewing time than all other methods, and we all know that the longer brewing time, the more caffeine goes into the cup.

The grinding degree (grind size) determines the length of the brewing time.
This applies not only to the Vietnamese coffee-makers.

Ha ha! 
Andy Passenger and Ciambella are both right I think.  Just a matter of semantics.  It takes longer to brew the Vietnamese coffee in the phin.  And I think thats what Ciambella means (correct me if I'm wrong). 
Andy, I think you could be referring to "proper" or "ideal" brewing times, which are affected by grind size ( again correct me if I'm wrong). With finer grind brewing times (espresso) quicker than a course grind (phin).
But espresso also has the pressure etc, etc, etc...anyway just my 2 cents...

726dbr wrote:

Ha ha! 
Andy Passenger and Ciambella are both right I think.  Just a matter of semantics.  It takes longer to brew the Vietnamese coffee in the phin.  And I think thats what Ciambella means (correct me if I'm wrong). 
Andy, I think you could be referring to "proper" or "ideal" brewing times, which are affected by grind size ( again correct me if I'm wrong). With finer grind brewing times (espresso) quicker than a course grind (phin).
anyway just my 2 cents...

Your 2 cents is worth more than its face value -- at least a good cup of coffee, with or without condensed milk.  Thank you for clarifying what Andy and I were trying to say.

726dbr wrote:

Ha ha! 
Andy Passenger and Ciambella are both right I think.  Just a matter of semantics.  It takes longer to brew the Vietnamese coffee in the phin.  And I think thats what Ciambella means (correct me if I'm wrong). 
Andy, I think you could be referring to "proper" or "ideal" brewing times, which are affected by grind size ( again correct me if I'm wrong). With finer grind brewing times (espresso) quicker than a course grind (phin).
But espresso also has the pressure etc, etc, etc...anyway just my 2 cents...

Yes you are right. 

I always get coffee powder from my wife's grandmother, because she loves coffee too.
She also experiments with coffee.
Mixes 2 coffee powders or even mixes in sugar.
That's why I get everything from a perfect mixture to an inedible sweet mixture.
The degree of grinding also varies from time to time.
So I noticed that the water throughput time (brewing time) is between 1 and 8 minutes, depending on the degree of grinding.
I think about 4-5 minutes is a good brewing time.
With a brewing time of about 1 minute, the coffee is definitely not strong enough.