Egg Coffee?

Vietnamese coffee culture

This week is all about Vietnam’s coffee culture, there’s alot more to it than I can cover in one post so this will be a quick overview of some of the staples of coffees from this region.

The brewing!

This fun looking metal cup is called the Phin brewer, it’s the brewer used for Vietnamese coffee and is super simple to use. This method uses quite finely ground coffee, similar in size to that of sand.

To brew you just put roughly 14 grams of ground coffee into the bottom of the brewer, give the whole thing a little shake to level out the grounds, place the filter plate ontop of the coffee and pour an oz or so of boiled water to bloom the coffee for 30 seconds or so. Once grounds have settled after the bloom, simply fill the brewer to the top with your boiled water and put the lid on top to keep in the heat!

Now just let the brewer drip away until its all done, this may take longer than usual for other drip coffee methods but will be well worth it!

The beans!

Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of Robusta coffee and so its no surprise that this species of bean is used almost exclusively in there coffee culture.

Robusta is generally considered to have double the caffeine of Arabica coffee as well as having dark and bold flavours whilst lacking in acidity. These characteristics can make Robusta seem very bitter but when balanced with sweetness Robusta coffees can make for some super nice hearty drinks.

The Egg

So why egg? Vietnam in the 1940’s was having a shortage of milk and so cafes started to substitute it with egg yolk which would be whisked up to form a foam and poured ontop of a cup of Robusta coffee made using the Phin brewers.

The egg yolk is sometimes mixed with sugar or honey to bring sweetness to counter the bitter coffee while the egg brings a smooth velvety texture.

Some places have replaced the use of egg yolk with condensed milk which brings the sweetness and texture in one!

Give it a try!

These coffees are a real must try either at home as best you can or out in a café/ restaurant that focus on Asian quinine, so if you try it anywhere be sure to let us know what you think on our Instagram!

Hope you have a great week and some even better coffees!