vietnameseiced.coffee

Central coast · Vietnam

Vietnamese coffee in Huế

Salt coffee comes from Huế: phin coffee over condensed milk, topped with a salted cream. The shops credited with it are still here, with older coffee houses around the Citadel.

3 cafés listedDetails checked November 2026

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Painted illustration of a glass of salt coffee, dark coffee under a thick pale cream layer, on a wooden table in a garden with a weathered ochre wall, frangipani and a lotus pond.
AI-generated illustration of a Huế-style garden café with salt coffee. It does not show a real café.
The local drink
Cà phê muối, salt coffee: phin coffee dripped onto condensed milk, with a salted cream on top. Served hot or iced.
Where it started
Commonly credited to a Huế couple who opened their first shop on Nguyễn Lương Bằng, in 2010 or 2014 depending on the interview.
Beyond Huế
By 2020 it had spread to Hanoi, Đà Nẵng and Ho Chi Minh City. Chains in Hanoi now sell their own versions.

Cafés in Huế

3 cafés so far. This is a short list by design: only cafés we could source are included. We have not visited them.

3 cafés

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Coffee in Huế

Salt coffee, cà phê muối, is Huế’s drink and a recent one. Coffee drips from a phin onto condensed milk, and a cream whipped with a little salt goes on top. It is drunk hot or iced, and in Huế it is usually stirred.

It is commonly credited to Hồ Thị Thanh Hương and Trần Nguyễn Hữu Phong, whose first shop is on Nguyễn Lương Bằng. They told CNN in 2024 that it opened in 2010; a 2025 interview in the provincial paper gives 2014. Their second shop, on Đặng Thái Thân, sits near the walls of the Imperial City.

By 2020 the drink had reached Hanoi, Đà Nẵng and Ho Chi Minh City, and national chains now sell their own versions. The founders have said they prefer to keep their own shops in Huế, so the city is still where you find theirs.

Salt coffee is not the only reason to sit down here. Chiều, a wooden coffee house on the same street, has been a local favourite for more than 30 years by VnExpress’s account.

More city guides

City images are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of real cafés or streets.

Related reading

A short glass of salt coffee with a thick beige salted-cream layer floating on dark coffee, a spoon resting in it, on a patterned café table.Photo: Phương Huy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Recipe

Cà phê muối

Vietnamese salt coffee

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.

How this list is made. Each café is researched from published sources, listed on its own page with the date we checked them. We have not been to these cafés and nothing here is a review. Addresses and opening hours change, so check before you travel.More on our method ·Suggest a café or a correction

Sources for coffee in Huế

Show the 4 sourcesHide the sources

The city context above comes from the following. Each café's own sources are on its page.

  1. Cà phê muối xứ HuếVnExpress (Ngân Dương) · 2020-09-03 · accessed 2026-11-04How the drink is built; its spread to Hanoi, Đà Nẵng and Ho Chi Minh City by 2020.
  2. Salty cream in your morning brew? Why Vietnam's specialty coffees are catching on around the worldCNN Travel (Maggie Hiufu Wong), read in the CNN Newsource syndicated copy · 2024-06-27 · accessed 2026-11-04The owners' account of creating salt coffee in 2010 at 10 Nguyễn Lương Bằng; versions served by cafés in the United States.
  3. Salted coffee brings the world to HueHuế Ngày Nay · 2025-02-10 · accessed 2026-11-04The owner's later account giving 2014 for the first shop; the couple keeping their shops in Huế.
  4. MenuCộng Cà Phê (official site) · accessed 2026-11-04A Hanoi chain selling a salted-cream coffee (nâu kem muối).