Gear
Grinders for Vietnamese Coffee
Everything else on this site is about extracting what is in the coffee. This is about the coffee still having something in it.
The short answer
A hand burr grinder with a reliable medium-coarse setting. Burrs, not blades — a blade grinder chops rather than mills and produces dust and boulders together, which makes a phin drip unpredictably. If you are only making Vietnamese coffee occasionally, pre-ground Vietnamese coffee is genuinely fine and already the right grind.
Burrs, not blades
A burr grinder mills beans between two shaped surfaces set a fixed distance apart, so every particle comes out roughly the same size. A blade grinder spins a blade and chops whatever it hits, so you get powder and chunks together.
For most brew methods that inconsistency shows up as a muddled flavour. For a phin it shows up as a drip you cannot predict, because the fines pack down and slow the flow unevenly, while the boulders barely extract at all. Some of the dust also passes through the base plate.
You can make good phin coffee with a blade grinder. It is simply harder than it needs to be.
When pre-ground is the right answer
This is worth saying plainly, because coffee writing tends to treat pre-ground as a moral failure.
Almost all coffee sold in Vietnam is pre-ground, milled for the phin, and it works. Dark-roast robusta is also more forgiving of staling than a light arabica, because much of what you taste comes from roast development rather than volatile origin aromatics.
If you make Vietnamese coffee twice a week, buy pre-ground from a bag you will finish in a month. That is a reasonable decision, not a compromise.
If you make it daily, or if you have started buying single-origin lots where the point is the origin character, grind it yourself.
Settings, roughly
| Grinder | Approximate phin setting |
|---|---|
| 1Zpresso J-series | 26–32 clicks from zero |
| Comandante C40 | 26–30 clicks |
| Timemore C2/C3 | 22–26 clicks |
| Baratza Encore | 20–24 |
| Generic hand grinder | A touch coarser than your V60 setting |
These are starting points. Dial by watching the drip: under two minutes, go finer; over eight, go coarser. See phin brew time.
Recommendation
The single biggest upgrade
Hand burr grinder with a coarse range
Steel or ceramic conical burrs, a click-adjustable collar, and a body that holds 25–30 g. For one 20 g dose it takes about half a minute.
Who it's for: Anyone drinking Vietnamese coffee more than a few times a week, or anyone who has started buying coffee good enough that staling matters.
- Consistent particle size, which means a predictable drip
- No power needed, and quiet enough to use at six in the morning
- Travels — a phin and a hand grinder fit in a carry-on
- Half a minute of effort per cup
- Impractical above about 30 g per batch
- Cheap models often have loose burr alignment, which undoes the point
Based on burr geometry and the grind consistency a gravity brewer requires. We have not run comparative particle-distribution tests.
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Some links on this page may be affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate relationships never determine our editorial conclusions.
What not to spend money on
An espresso-focused grinder. Many grinders optimised for espresso have a narrow adjustment range at the fine end and are imprecise where a phin needs them. Check the coarse range before buying.
A very expensive electric grinder, for this purpose alone. The gap between a good $70 hand grinder and a $700 electric one is real but small at medium-coarse settings. Most of what expensive grinders buy you is precision at espresso fineness, which a phin never uses.
Questions people ask
- Do I need a grinder for Vietnamese coffee?
- Not to start. Vietnamese pre-ground coffee is milled for the phin and works. But ground coffee loses most of its aromatics within two to three weeks, so if you drink it more than a few times a week a grinder is the change that improves it most.
- Can I use a blade grinder for phin coffee?
- You can, with patience. Blades chop rather than mill, producing fine dust and coarse chunks in the same batch. The dust slows the drip unpredictably and passes through the base plate into the cup. Pulse in short bursts and shake between them.
- What grinder setting for a phin?
- Medium-coarse — roughly 26–32 clicks from zero on most hand grinders, or around 20–24 on a Baratza Encore. A touch coarser than a V60 setting. Settings vary between grinders, so treat this as a starting point.
- Is an electric or hand grinder better for phin?
- For a single 20 g dose, a hand grinder takes about 30 seconds and costs a fraction of an equivalent electric. If you make several drinks a day, or dislike the effort, an electric burr grinder is worth it — the burr quality matters far more than whether it is powered.
Related reading
Brewing
The Best Grind Size for a Phin
A phin wants a medium-coarse grind, roughly the texture of coarse sand — finer than French press, much coarser than espresso. How to judge it and how to adjust.
Gear
How to Choose Vietnamese Coffee Beans
What to look for on a bag of Vietnamese coffee, which type suits which drink, and the additives worth avoiding. Criteria first, then recommendations.
Brewing
How to Use a Vietnamese Phin Filter
The phin is the Vietnamese coffee filter: 20 g, 100 ml, four to six minutes. The whole method, and what to change when the drip stalls or races.