Badass History of Vietnamese Coffee (Ca-Phe Sua)

Francis Lam, a frequent contributor to the sorely missed Gourmet magazine, has taken on a new post as editor of Salon.com's "Food Section." I've enjoyed his work for years and was delighted to know that his smart writing is being supported elsewhere. He contacted me a couple weeks ago about an article he was researching on Vietnamese coffee, it's colonial history in Vietnam and evolution in the United States. In particular, Francis (who's not Vietnamese, but Chinese) has these burning questions:

• How did sweetened condensed milk get to Vietnam?
• How did the Vietnamese coffee press (phin) come about?
• Why is Cafe Du Monde coffee from New Orleans so popular?

To get the answers, read the Salon.com piece, "Where the Bitter Turns Sweet: The Story of Vietnamese History.  If you have additional insights, do share them here with the rest of us!

Indulge your inner coffee geek (or maybe you've had too much today) with these links:

• High-tech Vietnamese Coffee (what I make my morning cup with)
• Vietnam Studies discussion of the Vietnamese coffee filter design (thanks Dr. Erica Peters of Culinary Historians of Northern California)
• Flickr photos of antique coffee makers that kinda resemble the Vietnamese filter; just remove the bottom and replace it with a cup!
• Antique coffee maker from India
• Viet coffee history on the Trung Nguyen coffee site (they're like the Starbucks of Vietnam) that date the first coffee plantings in Vietnam to the 1700s; other sources say the mid-1850

Comments

[Eve]

I love Vietnamese coffee. It really is like drinking rocket fuel, keeps you going all day. Although I probably drink more Vietnamese tea because the tea comes free at my favourite pho shop, but you've got to pay for the coffee.

Incidentally, do you know if the Vietnamese cook with fresh green peppercorns at all? They're available in my local Viet market, and I love their fresh green pungency so much that sometimes I just eat them off the stem like berries. I have a Thai curry that uses them, and sometimes I put them into stir-fries (I put some in Beef with Chinese Celery from your book tonight, it was great!) but I'd be interested to know if they're used in Vietnam, and how.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi Eve, when I drink too much Vietnamese coffee, I get surly. When my husband and I drink too much of it, we get into fights. Then one of us stops and says, "How much coffee did we drink?"

Yes, Viet people use green peppercorns for simmering with fish and caramel sauce. I think there are other applications but I've not sampled those. Do you buy your frozen or in a jar?

[Eve]

Neither - they're not preserved at all, but fresh in a little polystyrene tray. Pim of Chez Pim says she's never seen them in the US and doesn't think they're sold there, which is too bad, because they're really mild and crunchy and good.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Eve -- where do you live? In Vietnam, they're typically sold fresh, often times they're in a big container of water. They're numbingly tasty and yes, have that popping texture.

[Eve]

I'm in Prague, Czech Republic. There's a big Vietnamese community here. Every weekend we go to the Vietnamese wholesale markets on the edge of town (many Vietnamese Czechs work as market traders) to have a big bowl of something noodly and stock up on Asian foods. They always have dry goods and fresh veg and frozen fish, and sometimes fresh fish too, depending on the day. Most of the Asian veg seems to be grown in Germany and the Netherlands, but I'm pretty sure the peppercorns are coming in from Thailand, because a lot of the herbs and fruits are Thai.

[Buy Fioricet]

Nice post on Vietnamese culture and I think the coffee will be great.

[jorgebob28]

As a long-time Starbucks stock owner I'll have to utter heresy. Vietnamese iced coffee blows away anything Starbucks offers. It is particularly great after eating anything spicy. My own variation is to top a glass of ca-phe sua da with a teaspoon of half & half and then sucking the coffee through it. Maybe gilding the lily but it's a treat I have occasionally.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1060744932]

Eve, yes, now I remember you sending those marvelous photos of Vietnamese markets in Eastern Europe. Very interesting about the peppercorns. I'm sure they're from Thailand and the Viets have yet to export them.

Jorgebob28 -- well, your tip on the half-and-half is dandy. Maybe Starbucks will offer something along the lines of ca-phe sua da someday? Or, just use your stock dividends to support the Viet habit.

[acai beeren extrakt]

Hello
I have read that article which you have given about Vietnamese coffee.Its really interesting to read it.I am always interested in history of food or drink.Thank you very much.

[Elissa]

Great post Andrea! If it's bad-ass, I'll drink it.

[Andrea Nguyen]

@Elissa: I always knew that you were my kind of woman!

[channa]

I have always wondered if it is typical for Vietnamese coffee roasters to add some type of flavoring to their beans? I lived in Hanoi and got to love drinking black filtered coffee hot or over ice just as much as drinking it with condensed milk. It has a sweetness like vanilla or caramel on its own that seems quite different from ordinary coffee beans.

Home in Seattle I'm lucky enough to be able to buy Trung Nguyen and use this for my morning coffee, drunk hot and black from a drip coffee maker. Guests have called it the best coffee they've ever tasted and since it comes in small boxes and is inexpensive, I always have an extra box on hand to give to them. However I feel a little funny because I think there must be some kind of flavoring in it.

I've seen some reference to Vietnamese roasters roasting their coffee in clarified butter but this makes absolutely no economic sense to me and I don't see how it can be true.

I met a fair-trade coffee importer once and I asked him if he had any plans to import Vietnamese coffee since it is (ahem) *the best* and he kind of dismissively said "don't they mostly grow arabica?" I didn't know the difference between types of coffee beans at the time but I wish I had a bag of Cafe Mai to give him.

[Linda]

Hi,
I am currently taking a speech class and have decided to do an informative speech on how to make Vietnamese Iced Coffee. In my introduction I need a "grabber", attention getting material. Anyone have any ideas?

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