One of the highlights of our trip to Vietnam was the abundance of high quality, rich, chocolatey coffee on every corner- all for less than a dollar. The Vietnamese know their coffee and take it very seriously. Yet, don’t go searching for fancy shops with overly happy baristas serving multiple lettered coffee drinks. Some of the best coffee we had were on street corners and curbside food stands. Just some shabby plastic stools, laminated tables and the buzzing sound of motorbikes.
One of the best discoveries was cà phê sua chua or known to us foreigners as yogurt coffee. At first, a bit apprehensive to try coffee with yogurt. What could be so good about that? But after first taste, we were left wanting more, ordered seconds and for the remainder of our trip searched for ca phe sua chua on every occasion (sadly it was not so popular in the South). The bitterness of the coffee blends perfectly with the slightly sweetened yogurt.
Cà phê sua chua consists of a Vietnamese vinamilk yogurt (delicately sweet and delicious), a splash of condensed milk and strong Vietnamese coffee. Ice is optional.
Another treasure was the Cà phê sua da, rich and smooth drip coffee served with condensed milk. I probably had 10 of these a day, shaking and jittery on a coffee high after each drink. In fact, most of my time in Hanoi was spent on a coffee high.
In order to get the ultimate coffee experience it was essential to learn how to order these drinks at places where English was hard to come by. Usually pointing to the drink did the trick but otherwise the coffee vocabulary musts include: cà phê (coffee); đen or sữa (black or sweetened; nóng or đá (hot or iced).
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