About this recipe
Dark-roast coffee dripped slowly through a small metal filter onto a layer of sweetened condensed milk, then stirred and poured over ice. The drink depends on three things: a coarse dark roast with a high proportion of robusta, a phin filter that drips rather than pours, and enough patience to let it finish.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 1 tall glass
- Prep
- 5 minutes
- Cook
- 5 minutes brewing
- Total
- 10 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- None
Allergens Contains dairy (sweetened condensed milk). Gluten-free. Contains caffeine.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp (about 15 g) coarsely ground dark-roast Vietnamese coffee
- 2–3 tbsp (40–60 ml) sweetened condensed milk, to taste
- About 1/2 cup (120 ml) water just off the boil, around 200°F/93°C
- 1 tall glass of ice cubes
Equipment
- Vietnamese phin filter
- Heatproof glass or cup
- Tall glass
- Long spoon
- Kettle
Method
- Spoon the condensed milk into the bottom of a heatproof glass.
- Set the phin filter on top of the glass. Add the ground coffee to the chamber and shake it level.
- Set the gravity insert or screen on top of the grounds and press it down very lightly — snug, not tight.
- Pour about 2 tbsp (30 ml) of the hot water over the grounds to wet them. Wait 30–40 seconds for the bloom.
- Fill the chamber with the remaining hot water and fit the lid.
- Let it drip. A correctly packed phin takes 4–6 minutes and drips steadily rather than streaming. If it finishes in under 2 minutes, the grind is too coarse or the press too loose; if it stalls entirely, the reverse.
- Lift off the filter, set it on the inverted lid, and stir the coffee and condensed milk together until the mixture is uniformly caramel-coloured.
- Pour over the tall glass of ice and stir once more. Serve immediately with the spoon in the glass.
Uses from this chapter
- (No condiment; served as a drink) (—) — —
The Complete Edition
Cà Phê Sữa Đá (Iced Coffee) sits in the Vietnam chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Vietnam chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.