Southeast Asian Sweet Coffee
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: Under 5 mins
Active: Under 5 mins
Makes: 4 drinks
From: Essentials of Asian Cuisine: Fundamentals and Favorite Recipes , by Corinne Trang
Vietnamese and Thai coffees are both made by combining strong brewed coffee with sweet condensed milk. Thai grocery stores sell a ground-coffee mix that contains herbs and chicory. You can brew it as an everyday coffee, with or without the sweetened condensed milk (but that particular type of coffee is delicious sweetened). If you cannot find it, try making this Southeast Asian coffee using espresso. The results will still be delicious. The coffee can be served hot, at room temperature, chilled, or on ice.
- 1/4 cup or more sweetened condensed milk
- 4 double espressos, or brewed Thai coffee
- Add 1 tablespoon of condensed milk to each of four 8-ounce cups or glasses.
- In each pour 2 shots of espresso, and stir until the coffee and milk are well combined.
- Add a few ice cubes to each serving, if you wish.
Variations:
Make enough sweet coffee to fill a pitcher by combining 4 parts espresso to 1 or more parts sweetened condensed milk (if too sweet, cut with whole milk). Stir to combine, and refrigerate until well chilled.
To make sweet Vietnamese or Thai tea, brew 1 teaspoon gunpowder tea for every cup of water. Let steep for no more than 5 minutes. Proceed with the recipe, using condensed milk to sweeten each tea drink.
This recipe, while from a trusted source, may not have been tested by the CHOW food team.
Simon & Schuster
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
I love coffee and this looks like a definite recipe to try ~
I find that cafe sua da (the Vietnamese version of this drink) is much better made with the cheap metal filters that you can find in any Chinatown or Viet food store than with espresso. Yes, a $1 filter makes better coffee for the base of this drink than does a $20,000 La Marzocco Mistral!
Vietnamese coffee beans are dreadful cheap robusta that are roasted to death. You can get a similar effect with most roasters' "French Roast." Grind for drip (not espresso or you will die of thirst before the coffee arrives- this is a gravity system, not a pressure one, and an espresso grind is much too fine), add SWEETENED condensed milk, NOT "evaporated milk" and ice. 1 T is probably not enough milk.
The best & traditional way to make Ca Phe Sua Da (iced coffee with milk) is to use the Vietnamese espresso filter. To get best results use a lot of coffee - 20g or so/3or4 heaped tsp, put the screen on top of the ground coffee, & add a small slug of boiling water and wait till it is absorbed for a few seconds. This will swell the grounds and facilitate a slow regular drip - making an intense and viscous coffee.
Fill a tall highball glass with well crushed ice, add condensed milk to the espresso and beat vigorously with a long spoon
before pouring onto the ice. Serve with a slug of black coffee on the top for attractive colour contrast, with a drinking straw & long spoon to stir & mix with.
Ca Phe Den Da (black Iced Coffee) is made mixing sugar -1-2 spoons with espresso before adding to ice.
In Vietnam milky coffee is generally a ladies drink, & black for men!
It is important to use a Vietnam roasted coffee as other coffees do not have the rich, chocolatey & nutty characters that make the Vietnamese Iced Coffee so special & unique.
One of my mother's favourite desserts seems to be inspired by this - coffee-flavoured Jello served with condensed milk
bun bo hue- yes, there are decent robustas, including the ones that go into Josuma's Malabar Gold. Vietnamese coffee is generally garbage, so much so that their 33 cents a pound robustas are the biggest threat to Brazil's bottom-of-the-barrel coffee industry since the last frost. They are competing for the bottom rung.
There are of course outstanding beans from both countries, but the fact is that most Viet beans are terrible, but they work beautifully in cafe sua da.
John
there is always a demand for the cheapest in all products. Vietnam seems to excell at this, that is not to say that there are not excellent coffees produced there, also that very little of the quality production is exported.
These are the only iced coffees I drink outside of my home... yum!