Make homemade Vietnamese Iced Coffee without needing the special filter! This strong and sweet icy drink is the perfect pick-me-up for the avid coffee fan.
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What is Vietnamese Iced Coffee?
Every coffee fan hs got to try the famous Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Vietnamese iced Coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) is Vietnam's most famous drink. It's an intensely strong, icy coffee drink cut with the equally intense creamy goodness of sweetened condensed milk.
In Vietnam, this drink is sold virtually everywhere from street-side stands to modern restaurants. It's akin to Thailand's iconic Iced Thai Tea.
Ingredients to Make Easy Viet Iced Coffee
Traditional Vietnamese iced coffee is made using a cup-sized metal filter, where the intense coffee slowly brews and drips over a glass of crushed ice and sweetened condensed milk. This is the old-fashioned method and has it's own charm.
Thankfully, you don't need this special filter to make Viet Iced Coffee at home. All you're going to need are:
- Very strong coffee (Espresso, French Press, Instant Coffee)
- Sweetened condensed milk ( a lot of it 🙂 )
- Crushed ice
Best Method To Brew Strong Coffee
Making espresso using an espresso machine or a Moka pot (percolator) is the BEST way to brew coffee for Viet Iced Coffee (without a traditional filter) because it produces the STRONGEST coffee that's close enough to how it's brewed traditionally.
If you don't have an espresso machine or Moka pot, you can use instant coffee powder to easily make "espresso". If using instant coffee powder sounds inauthentic, I'd like to share that my Vietnamese parents both use instant coffee powder to make their coffee every day even though they could use a Moka pot - so instant coffee is good enough for real Viet people 😉
AND if you don't have instant coffee powder, you can always make a strong brew using a French Press. This will make the final product a bit more diluted than ideal since French Press coffee is not as strong as espresso or instant coffee.
Recommended Authentic Brands
- Coffee: Cafe Du Monde or Trung Nguyen are the two most famous Vietnamese coffee brands. Both have a unique chicory flavour and crew a strong cup. If you can access these coffees, I HIGHLY recommend using it for this recipe.
- Sweetened condensed milk: Longevity Brand (Sữa Ông Thọ) is the brand you'll find in most Viet households in North America. You can use any brand, though, because the coffee flavour is what matters more!
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Recipe for Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Vietnamese Iced Coffee Recipe (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) (Make Without A Filter)
Ingredients
- 2 shots espresso
- 4 heaping tsp sweetened condensed milk or sweetened condensed coconut milk
- enough crushed ice to fill a glass
Instructions
- Brew espresso using machine/Moka Pot. See recipe notes for instant coffee or French Presso method.
- Pour sweetened condensed milk into a glass. Fill glass with lots of crushed ice. Pour espresso over ice. Stir ice, sweetened condensed milk, and espresso well and enjoy.
Notes
- Instant coffee espresso method: 2 teaspoon coffee powder and 2 shot glasses of hot water
- French Press method: use 30 g coffee grinds and 360 ml (12 oz) hot water. Let steep for 6 minutes, then plunge.
One response to “Vietnamese Iced Coffee Recipe (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) (Make Without A Filter)”
LOVE viet Iced coffee