vietnameseiced.coffee

Journal

Culture

Habits, cities and the cup

Street coffee, regional habits, and how the drinks themselves came about.

Culture

How to Say Cà Phê Sữa Đá, and Phin

Cà phê sữa đá is coffee, milk and ice, one word each. How to say the four syllables, what the tone marks change, and what phin means in Vietnamese.

A narrow café front in Hà Nội's Old Quarter with low wooden stools and small tables set out on the pavement beneath a yellow signboard.Photo: Alexkom000 · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Culture

Hanoi vs Saigon Coffee Culture

Two cities, two climates, two vocabularies for the same drink. What nâu means in Hanoi, why Saigon drinks everything iced, and where egg coffee and bạc xỉu came from.

A large aluminium phin with an embossed lid dripping into a glass on a red plastic table at a pavement stall, a plate of food beside it.Photo: Phương Huy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Culture

Vietnamese Coffee Culture: Pavement Stalls, Chains and Pour-Over Bars

The four kinds of Vietnamese café, who uses each and what for, why the drink is sweet, and how domestic coffee drinking is changing.

Two phins dripping into glasses that stand in bowls of hot water on a stone table, a teapot and small cups between them and blue plastic chairs behind.Photo: Frank Fox · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Culture

Why Vietnam Drinks Coffee Slowly

The phin takes four to six minutes and cannot be hurried. The stool, the free tea and the hour spent over one glass all follow from that one mechanical fact.