Recipe
Cà phê trứng
Vietnamese egg coffee
Roughly: ka fe TRUNG
Whipped egg yolk in place of fresh milk, which most accounts credit to a Hanoi hotel bartender at a time when milk was scarce. It is often compared to liquid tiramisu.
How to make cà phê trứng
IngredientsFor 1 glass
- Egg yolks, fresh, at room temperature2
Room temperature whips far better than fridge-cold.
- Sweetened condensed milk30 ml2 tbsp
- Dark-roast Vietnamese robusta, medium-coarse18 gabout 3 tbsp
- Water, just off the boil90 mlabout 6 tbsp
- Vanilla extract, optionala drop
- Boiling water for the bain-marieenough to come halfway up the glass
Equipment
- A phin, 120 ml
- A small heatproof glass or cup
- A shallow bowl the glass fits inside
- An electric hand whisk (a balloon whisk works but takes real effort)
- A small mixing bowl
Method
- 1
Brew the coffee first
Load the phin with 18 g, bloom with 20 ml, then add the remaining 70 ml. Let it drip into the small glass. You want it hot when the foam goes on.
Look for: About 65–70 ml of very dark coffee.
- 2
Separate the yolks carefully
Any white that gets in will stop the foam setting properly. Two yolks is right for one drink, because this is a rich cup.
Look for: Clean yolks with no stringy white attached.
- 3
Whisk the yolks and condensed milk
Whisk on high for four to six minutes. It will go from loose and orange to pale, thick and glossy. Do not cut this short: under-whisked yolk is what makes the foam thin and eggy.
Look for: Pale custard yellow, holds a soft peak, roughly tripled in volume.
- 4
Check the texture
Lift the whisk. The foam should fold back on itself slowly and hold its shape for a few seconds. If it collapses immediately, keep whisking.
Look for: A ribbon that sits on the surface before sinking.
- 5
Spoon it on
Spoon the foam onto the hot coffee rather than pouring it. It should sit on top as a distinct layer roughly as deep as the coffee below it.
Look for: Two clear layers, dark below, pale gold above.
- 6
Stand it in hot water
Set the glass in a shallow bowl of boiling water. This is how it is served in Hanoi, and for a reason: the drink cools fast and the foam firms up unpleasantly when it does.
Look for: Steam rising around the glass.
If it goes wrong
| What happened | Why | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| The foam is thin and never thickened. | Under-whisked, cold yolks, or white got into the yolks. | Whisk longer than feels reasonable: five minutes with an electric whisk. Start with room-temperature eggs. |
| It tastes eggy. | Under-whisked, or stale eggs. | Proper whipping denatures the yolk proteins and the eggy note goes. Fresh eggs matter. A drop of vanilla helps mask any remainder. |
| The foam sank into the coffee. | Foam too loose, or poured rather than spooned. | Whisk to a soft peak and spoon it gently onto the surface. |
| It has gone grainy. | Over-whisked, or the coffee was boiling hot and started to cook the yolk. | Let the coffee sit 30 seconds before adding the foam. Stop whisking once it holds a peak. |
What cà phê trứng is
Cà phê trứng (Vietnamese egg coffee) is coffee brewed in a phin under a thick cap of egg yolk whipped with sweetened condensed milk. Trứng is egg, and the name stacks the way the rest of a Vietnamese menu does, which the coffee words page sets out.
Only the yolk goes in, and nothing is cooked. Whisked with condensed milk for five minutes, two yolks turn pale and thick, closer to a loose custard than to a meringue. The hot coffee underneath is the only heat the foam ever meets.
It is served in a small glass standing in a dish of hot water, and the first third is eaten with a spoon.
The short version
Whisk two room-temperature egg yolks with two tablespoons of condensed milk for five minutes until pale and thick. Brew 18 g of coffee in a phin into a small glass. Spoon the foam on top. Stand the glass in a bowl of hot water and drink it before it cools.
What it tastes like
Published descriptions converge on custard rather than egg. Hanoi Times puts the flavour of the foam near vanilla and reports that the coffee becomes noticeable towards the bottom of the glass. The Michelin Guide describes a custard-like cap that mellows the coffee’s intensity. The iced version is commonly compared to coffee ice cream.
It is sweet, and the coffee dose underneath is smaller than a cà phê sữa đá takes: 18 g against 20 g, in less water. The foam sits about as deep in the glass as the coffee below it.
Where it comes from
Egg coffee has a traceable origin, which most Vietnamese drinks do not, and it rests on one family’s account.
CNN, reporting from the café in 2017, quotes Nguyễn Văn Đạo saying that his father, Nguyễn Văn Giảng, invented the recipe in 1946 while working as a bartender at what is now the Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi. Fresh milk was scarce, so whisked egg yolk went in instead. “All the foreigners and the Vietnamese in the hotel liked it,” Đạo told CNN, and his father later left to sell it under his own name.
The Michelin Guide gives the same year and the same hotel, and dates the opening of Café Giảng in the Old Quarter to the 1960s. Hanoi Times reports the 1946 account from Đạo as well.
Every published version traces back to the family of the man credited, and no contemporary document from the 1940s has surfaced to confirm the date. The logic is easy to believe, because the same thing happened with condensed milk: fresh milk was hard to get, something else went in, and it was good enough to keep. That part of the story is in the history of coffee in Vietnam.
Café Giảng is still the café travel guides send people to.
Butter and cheese
Both CNN and Hanoi Times asked Đạo what goes in. He named egg, condensed milk, coffee powder, butter and cheese, then stopped: “but I can’t tell you everything, it’s a secret recipe.”
Yolk and condensed milk get you the drink. The butter and the cheese are Giảng’s, in quantities nobody has published, so a home version will not be a copy. The Metropole’s own published recipe is different again: 10 g of robusta, three yolks, condensed milk, vanilla syrup and a measure of vodka.
Why whipped yolk works
An egg yolk is about 52% dry matter, and roughly 65% of that dry matter is lipid against 31% protein. Its phospholipids are 80.5% phosphatidylcholine, the compound sold as lecithin, and phosphatidylcholine together with the yolk’s lipoproteins is what makes mayonnaise hold. Whipping a yolk with condensed milk builds the same kind of emulsion, with air folded in and sugar thickening what is left.
That is also why the white stays out. White is the foaming half of an egg and yolk is the emulsifying half, and this cap is an emulsion with air in it. Give it five minutes with an electric whisk; it looks ready at two minutes and is not.
Temperature is the other variable. Patil and colleagues’ review reports yolk protein denaturation peaking at 74.1 °C and again at 83.9 °C, citing Llave and colleagues. Coffee coming off a phin can still be inside that range, which would explain the grainy foam in the troubleshooting list as set yolk rather than whipped yolk. Letting the coffee stand half a minute before the foam goes on costs nothing. Nobody appears to have measured the temperature at the surface of the glass, so that is inference from the denaturation figures rather than a finding.
Why it does not taste of egg
No published explanation turned up, which is odd for a question asked this often. Two things are plainly happening and neither has been measured in this drink: a yolk whipped to three times its volume is mostly air by then, and two tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk is a large quantity of sugar and milk solids set against 34 g of yolk.
What every account does agree on is the failure mode. Under-whipped yolk tastes of egg, and so does a stale one.
The numbers
Two large yolks weigh about 34 g, and USDA puts raw egg yolk at 322 kcal per 100 g, so the yolks alone come to roughly 110 calories. With 30 ml of condensed milk and an 18 g coffee dose, this build works out at an estimated 233 calories and about 21 g of total sugars, above a cà phê sữa đá’s 120 and below a bạc xỉu’s 277. The arithmetic, drink by drink, is on the calories page.
Yolk carries almost no sugar, 0.56 g per 100 g, so the sweetness is entirely the tin. One tablespoon of condensed milk instead of two takes about 60 calories out of the glass.
Egg coffee that is not this
The unqualified English term covers a second, unrelated drink. Scandinavian egg coffee, also called Swedish or Norwegian egg coffee, mixes a whole raw egg and often its shell into the grounds, boils the lot, and lets the egg and grounds settle into a raft. Reporting in the Star Tribune describes the result as lighter in colour and not bitter.
That reporting traces the method to rural Scandinavian practice in the 1700s and 1800s, when coffee was expensive and grounds were reused, and credits Swedish immigrants with carrying it to the United States in the 1800s. It notes that the method is virtually unknown in Denmark, Sweden and Norway today, and that Salem Lutheran Church still brews it at the Minnesota State Fair.
What the two drinks share is an English name and an ingredient. Cà phê trứng uses the yolk only, never boils it, and puts it on top of the coffee rather than in with the grounds.
Raw yolk
The yolk in this drink is not cooked. FDA states that fresh eggs with clean, uncracked shells may still contain Salmonella, and its guidance for recipes calling for eggs that are raw or undercooked when served is to use shell eggs that have been treated to destroy it, or pasteurised egg products. Pasteurised yolks are sold in cartons.
How it is served in Hanoi
In a small glass, in a bowl of hot water, with a spoon. You eat the first third with the spoon and drink the rest. The Metropole keeps its version warm over a small candle instead, to the same end. Cafés in the Old Quarter now serve it with cocoa, matcha, even beer. Learn the original first.
Substitutions
| Instead of | Use | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Raw egg yolk | Pasteurised egg yolk | Whips slightly less well but is the sensible choice if raw egg is a concern. Available in cartons in most supermarkets. |
| Egg | Aquafaba plus condensed milk | Makes a vegan foam with a similar texture, though without the custard richness. Whip 45 ml of aquafaba to stiff peaks first, then fold in the milk. |
| Condensed milk | Caster sugar, about 2 tsp per yolk | Sweetens it to roughly the same place, but the foam comes out thinner, because condensed milk is contributing body as well as sugar. Dissolve the sugar in a teaspoon of hot water first. |
Questions people ask
- What is Vietnamese egg coffee?
- Cà phê trứng: coffee brewed in a phin, the small metal drip filter that sits on the glass, under a thick cap of egg yolk whipped with sweetened condensed milk. Only the yolk goes in, and nothing is cooked. It is served hot in a small glass standing in a dish of hot water, and the first third is eaten with a spoon. It is a Hanoi drink, credited to a bartender in 1946.
- What does cà phê trứng mean?
- Coffee egg. Cà phê is coffee and trứng is egg, the same stacking that makes cà phê sữa đá coffee plus milk plus ice. Roughly: ka fe TRUNG.
- Does egg coffee taste like egg?
- Properly made, no. Whipping the yolk with condensed milk until it is pale and thick removes the eggy note almost entirely. What is left is usually described as warm custard, or the cream layer of a tiramisu.
- Is egg coffee safe to drink?
- It uses raw or barely-warmed egg yolk, so the usual raw-egg guidance applies: use fresh eggs, and choose pasteurised yolks if you are pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised.
- Who invented egg coffee?
- Nguyễn Văn Giảng, in 1946, while working as a bartender at what is now the Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi, using whipped egg yolk in place of scarce fresh milk. CNN and the MICHELIN Guide both give that year and that hotel. Café Giảng in Hanoi is still run by his family, and the account traces back to them: no contemporary document from the 1940s has surfaced to confirm it.
- Should egg coffee be hot or cold?
- Hot is the original and still the norm in Hanoi. Iced versions exist and are common in tourist areas, but the foam behaves quite differently when cold. The iced version is commonly compared to coffee ice cream.
- What does Vietnamese egg coffee taste like?
- Published descriptions converge on custard rather than egg. Hanoi Times puts the flavour of the foam near vanilla and says the coffee becomes noticeable towards the bottom of the glass; the Michelin Guide describes a custard-like cap that mellows the coffee underneath. It is sweet, and the coffee dose underneath is smaller than a cà phê sữa đá's.
- How many calories are in Vietnamese egg coffee?
- An ESTIMATE of 233, with about 21 g of total sugars, for the build on this page: two large egg yolks, 30 ml of condensed milk and an 18 g coffee dose. Two yolks are about 110 of those calories and almost none of the sugar. That sits above a cà phê sữa đá's 120 and below a bạc xỉu's 277.
- Can I make egg coffee without condensed milk?
- Yes, with about 2 tsp of caster sugar per yolk, dissolved in a little hot water first. The foam comes out thinner, because the condensed milk is contributing body as well as sweetness.
- Is Swedish egg coffee the same thing?
- No. Scandinavian egg coffee, also called Swedish or Norwegian egg coffee, mixes a whole raw egg and often its shell into the grounds and boils them together, which clears the brew. Cà phê trứng uses the yolk only, never boils it, and puts it on top of the coffee. Two drinks, one English name.
Sources
Figures on this page come from the following. Where a claim is an estimate or a common description rather than a measurement, the text says so.
- The story behind Hanoi's beloved egg coffeeCNN Travel · 2017-03 · accessed 2026-10-10Nguyễn Văn Đạo's account that his father Nguyễn Văn Giảng invented the recipe in 1946 while a bartender at what is now the Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi, with whisked egg yolk standing in for scarce fresh milk; the quotation "All the foreigners and the Vietnamese in the hotel liked it"; Đạo naming egg, condensed milk, coffee powder, butter and cheese before declining to give the rest; and the hot version served in a small glass set in a dish of hot water and eaten with a spoon.
- How to make Vietnam's egg coffee the Michelin wayMICHELIN Guide · 2025-04 · accessed 2026-10-10The same 1946 date and the Metropole; Café Giảng opening in Hanoi's Old Quarter in the 1960s; the hotel's own build of 10 g of Vietnamese robusta, three egg yolks, condensed milk, vanilla syrup and vodka; the cup kept warm over a small candle; and the description of a custard-like cap that mellows the coffee's intensity.
- Egg coffee, the best coffee in HanoiHanoi Times · accessed 2026-10-10A second report of the same 1946 account from Nguyễn Văn Đạo, with butter and cheese among the undisclosed ingredients, the address at 39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân, the foam's flavour put near vanilla, the coffee becoming noticeable towards the bottom of the glass, and the iced version compared to coffee ice cream. The page carries no byline or publication date.
- Egg, yolk, raw, fresh (FDC ID 172184)USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy · accessed 2026-10-10Raw egg yolk at 322 kcal, 15.9 g of protein, 26.5 g of fat and 0.56 g of total sugars per 100 g, and 17 g for one large yolk, which is where the figure of about 110 calories for two yolks comes from.
- A review on understanding of egg yolk as functional ingredientsJournal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences 11(4):e4627 (Patil, Rao, Matondkar, Bhushette and Sonawane) · 2022-02 · accessed 2026-10-10Egg yolk at about 52% dry matter, of which roughly 65% is lipid and 31% protein; phosphatidylcholine at 80.5% of the yolk's phospholipids and its use as an emulsifier; phospholipids and lipoproteins as the basis of mayonnaise's emulsifying properties; and yolk protein denaturation peaking at 74.14 °C and 83.85 °C, which the review reports from Llave and colleagues (2017).
- What You Need to Know About Egg SafetyUS Food and Drug Administration · 2024-03 · accessed 2026-10-10That fresh eggs with clean, uncracked shells may contain Salmonella, and the FDA's guidance that recipes calling for eggs that are raw or undercooked when served use shell eggs treated to destroy Salmonella, or pasteurised egg products.
- How did egg coffee become a Minnesota tradition? (Curious Minnesota)Star Tribune · accessed 2026-10-10Scandinavian egg coffee as a whole raw egg, often with its shell, mixed into the grounds and boiled, settling into a raft and producing a lighter, less bitter brew; its likely emergence from rural Scandinavian practice in the 1700s and 1800s when grounds were reused; its transmission by Swedish immigrants to the United States in the 1800s; that it is virtually unknown in Denmark, Sweden and Norway today; and Salem Lutheran Church still brewing it at the Minnesota State Fair.
