Vietnamese Iced Coffee Recipe (Cafe Sua Da)
In Vietnam, there are no drive-thrus nor take-out. Coffee is brewed and served either at home or in restaurants at leisure. Hot coffee (cafe nong) is preferred in the morning, while iced coffee (cafe sua da) is saved for the heat later in the day.
I was talking to my Dad about coffee and he was reminiscing about cups from the past. This man loves his cup of joe.
He’s completely happy here in the States, but has an incredibly fond memory of his life in Vietnam. “There was nothing like escaping from the rain–running into a coffee shop with a lightly damp raincoat. I can immensely enjoy a cup in that kind of atmosphere.”
Although we Vietnamese “owe” the availability of ingredients for this coffee to French colonization, this creation is Vietnamese. Vietnamese coffee is uniquely characterized by a combination of French roast coffee dripped through a Vietnamese coffee filter mixed with condensed milk.
French roast pairs exceptionally well with condensed milk. The Vietnamese coffee filter gives a stronger brew than that of an American drip machine and different than that of a French press.
Any French roast can be used, but the most popular brands for Vietnamese coffee I’ve seen are Cafe Du Monde, Cafe’de Paris, and Trung Nguyen. For this recipe, we’re going to stick with Cafe Du Monde.
Notice that Cafe Du Monde isn’t pure coffee! This grind is laced with the ground root of the chicory herb. This mixture originated in Europe during WWII when money was tight and expensive foods like coffee needed to last. Chicory root was used to stretch the coffee supply. After the war, the preference for the chicory flavor became a trend and exists even today!
What you need:
-1 heaping tablespoon (about 4 teaspoons) of Cafe Du Monde grind
-1-2 teaspoons condensed milk to fit your taste
-a Vietnamese coffee filter
-a glass for the brew
-a glass filled with ice
Prep time: 1 minute
Cook time: 3-5 minutes
Start by boiling some water. An electric kettle makes it a lot faster. I’m lucky my tea-loving roommate left it behind when she went back to Australia. I would have never thought to purchase one, but it I’m glad I have it!
Remove the metal filter and pour in 1 heaping tablespoon of Cafe Du Monde (about 4 teaspoons). I love the smell of coffee!
Twist the filter on gently until it just starts to stop. Then turn it little more, a bit less than 1/8 a turn.
If you wanted to drink this hot instead, you can put the brewing cup in a bowl and fill the bowl with hot water. For this recipe, we’re going to stick with the iced version.
Ideally you want to add the condensed milk to the cup before brewing because the boiling water actually cooks it. It does have a slight affect on the flavor. For this recipe we’ll add it after since most readers probably don’t know how much condensed milk they want.
To brew, pour a tiny bit of water in the filter just to wet the grind and to let the grind expand a bit. Also this will help rid of some small grinds that happen to make it through the filter. You can toss it out if you see any.
Then go ahead and fill the filter all the way and let it drip. Ideal brewing time comes to about 3 to 5 minutes so adjust the filter accordingly. Too loose and you’ll just have runny brown water. Too tight and nothing will drip through. The filter will be hot, so use a fork or another utensil to adjust the filter. Place the cap on and watch the coffee drip!
For condensed milk, I prefer Longevity Brand – Sua Ong Tho, because of the sweet graphic.
Personally, I like it a little bitter. About 1 teaspoon of condensed milk does it for me. If you like it sweeter add 2 or 3 teaspoons.
Pour the brew into a glass filled with ice and serve. Now make some for your coffee loving buddies!
So, this is amazing. I almost love Vietnamese iced coffee more than life itself. I’m inspired to do this on my own instead of forking over the $1.75 for coffee!
I love it too! Making it is half the fun. Let me know how it turns out for you.
cafe du monde! i keep my monies in those tins.
Hi Huy – Though I tend to go more for Cafe Den Da, Cafe Sua Da is always a nice pick me up. Here’s a funny story, in North Vietnam they call it Cafe Nao Da, so when we tried ordering it no one knew what the heck we were ordering! Keep up the great posts.
I love Vietnamese coffee! Never thought to make it at home. I’ll have to try. Thanks.
hmm, Cafe Sua Da (iced milk coffee) is the common name in the Southern of Viet Nam. The people in Southern prefer sweeten and weak taste and coffee here is served with a lot of ice.
People in the North prefer much stronger taste (even much stronger than coffe in Buon Me Thuot, home of Trung Nguyen brand) and just a little milk is enough. Cafe Nau Da (iced brown coffeee) is the common name in the North, most people in the South is not familiar with this name (but the situation is changing now, in some café you can order Cafe Nau Da and they will bring Cafe Sua Da which is sweeter and weaker)
Often when I order this in a Vietnamese restaurant or make it myself there is so much coffee in the filter that you can’t screw the filter on–you just press it down and it will drip slowly enough. It makes it very strong; one of my favorite things about café sua da is the clash of the strong bitterness of the coffee and chicory with the strong sweetness of the sweetened condensed milk. Delicious!
Chicory coffee predates WWII by quite a bit! In Louisiana, Chicory became popular in the 1800s as a way to extend supplies of coffee that were in short supply due to the civil war. Since then, chicory coffee has been popular in the New Orleans area, where Cafe du Monde proudly brews coffee 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As an aside, there is a huge vietnamese population in New Orleans, concentrated in the New Orleans East neighborhoods of Village de l’Est and Îles Vénetiennes. There’s fantastic coffee out there, too.
Even full brewed Vietnamese coffee is great. Staying in a hotel in HCMC recently each morning with breakfast we got “pot coffee” that was delicious. It had that unmistakable chocolate flavor that comes with the type of roasting given coffee grown in Vietnam. I just bought 2 bags of Vietnamese roasted beans by the internet and how brew that subtle chocolate 6:00 coffee in my Cuisinart every day. The beans are dark and fragrant and almost sticky with oil. This is the real stuff, grown, roasted, and shipped from Vietnam, and ohhhhh so delicious!!
Such fantastic coffee the cafe Sua Da.. Funny to experience around the world that other coffee lovers travelling to Vietnam experience the same!! Its a true winner and apparantly quite unknown..
Great article, and fabulous photography! Thank you!
One quick note – you might want to mention that Cafe du Monde and Cafe de Paris are not Vietnamese brands. Only Trung Nguyen is Vietnamese, of the brands you listed. Lots of people in America still think of chicory coffee when they think Vietnamese, like you said, but I think it’s worth mentioning in case people want to be authentic.
I like using Trung Nguyen, but will have to try Cafe Du Monde at home. I found your recipe while searching for a tip for screwing on the filter I usually screw it too tight and hardly get a drip, its 50/50 most of the time, but right now I got it just right!