KOREA FOUNDATION

Life in ASEAN​ 

Coffee’s special place in the lives of Vietnamese people 

​By Jeong Hee-ju (author)

What beverage do you think people drink the most? Tea and alcoholic drinks are certainly popular, but I feel that the real answer is coffee. The total amount of coffee consumed worldwide is approximately 400 billion cups per year. Coffee, which is readily available everywhere we go, tells a different story for each country due to differences in culture and history. Today, I would like to direct your attention to the coffee of Viet Nam, a country that is well-known in Korea for its food and has long been a favorite travel destination. 

   Coffee was introduced to Viet Nam while it was a French colony. At that time, when a French missionary priest first brought coffee to Viet Nam in 1857, it was a special beverage that could only be enjoyed by the royal Nguyễn family. Ever since the Vietnamese government opened its economy to trade and a mass production system was put in place for coffee beans, coffee is a popular beverage that is easily accessible by all. Viet Nam’s climate and soil are very conducive to coffee farming—in particular for coffee canephora, also known as robusta coffee. Today, Viet Nam is the world’s largest producer of robusta coffee, which is known for its bitter taste, high caffeine content, and lower price compared to that of coffee arabica. The high productivity and low price of robusta beans has made coffee a very affordable “people’s beverage.” Furthermore, coffee exports have contributed significantly to Viet Nam’s economic growth.  

< pic 2 >Cà phê phin

< pic 3 >Vietnamese dripper-style coffee filter set

   In Viet Nam, coffee is usually consumed as “cà phê phin,” or coffee produced by filling a holed filter with ground beans and pouring hot water over it. This is a favorite method because it quickly preserves a strong fragrance and flavor. Coffee created via cà phê phin can be enjoyed cold by adding ice (cà phê đá) or hot (cà phê nóng). There is also the famous “cà phê sữa,” or Vietnamese iced coffee, which is influenced by Vietnamese people’s preference for sweet foods. Cà phê sữa is an especially captivating coffee because it combines the strong flavor of coffee extracted by cà phê phin with the sweetness of condensed milk. Cà phê sữa is called “cà phê sữa đá” if consumed cold and “cà phê sữa nóng” if consumed hot. 

   As for their favorite coffee-drinking location, Vietnamese people prefer to enjoy coffee on the street. Sitting on plastic stools outside cafés in the summer while enjoying a cold coffee is the epitome of Vietnamese coffee culture. The roadside café experience also shows the openness of Vietnamese citizens to others—it is common to make conversation with those at nearby tables while people-watching—and just how integral coffee is to the daily routine. As such, coffee is a major factor of economic growth in Viet Nam and a source of everyday energy for the country’s people. Go out and try a Vietnamese iced coffee today!

This content of this article may differ from the editorial direction of the ASEAN Culture House Monthly.