According to Dietmar Vogelmann, founder of Farmer’s Blend coffee in Mui Ne where we purchase our office coffee, an average cup of coffee requires at least 20g of coffee beans.

“The Vietnamese drink on average 35 cups of coffee per person per year.”

This raises some questions. If all the people I see drinking ca phe sua da every day would actually consume coffee, the statistical amount should be much higher than 35 annual cups. And this question brings us straight to the issue of “fake” coffee. Even if Vietnam currently focuses on producing cheap coffee, the actual price of pure coffee is quite high.

On Alibaba.com you can buy roasted robusta beans from Saigon port for around six U.S. dollars per kilogram if you agree to buy several tonnes. Green coffee beans are much cheaper, but you need a roastery to make them drinkable, and during the roasting process they lose 20% of their weight. However, there is a simple solution popular in Vietnam to cut the price and create greater revenue for your coffee business, be it at a café or a streetside stall: Add some fillers!

These additives are supposed to give the finished coffee a richer umami taste and the thick, oily consistency that is typical for Vietnamese coffee. I remember my first cup of coffee in Hanoi and I was more than a little surprised about the salty taste.

At Farmer’s Blend coffee, they add just a little French butter to the still warm beans and a dash of rum, to give their Vietnamese blend a traditional finish. “I experimented with soybeans and other ingredients, to create a product that is similar to the popular brands of coffee in Vietnam,” disclosed founder Dietmar Vogelmann in our recent interview, “but the process is too complicated and some of the ingredients are too dodgy, so I gave up on soybeans and only process pure coffee beans.”

“These ingredients can poison your liver, cause cancer and defects in unborn babies.”

In the South, people usually pour their beverage over ice, while in the Highlands or the northern provinces, coffee is best enjoyed hot. That is mostly an issue of the climate. The use of condensed milk dates back to the French, who traditionally add milk to their coffee. Vietnam however did not have a mentionable milk production back then, so the French imported condensed milk from Europe. The excessive sweetness of the milk reduces the bitterness of the dark roast and makes the beverage even thicker than before – exactly how the locals love it.

The use of fresh milk is still not very popular, since most milk offered at the supermarket is just rehydrated powder anyway. Real pasteurized milk like Dalat Milk, for example, comes at double the price per liter as the product of Vietnamese market leaders. Also, people fear that adding fresh milk may water down their coffee.

People who don’t add condensed milk to their Vietnamese coffee usually add loads of sugar instead. This version is called ca phe den, black coffee. Coffee drinkers who don’t like their coffee sweetened at all meet incredulous stares and unless you specify that you don’t want any sugar, the staff may even add some despite you ordering sugar-free.

Vietnamese coffee is traditionally brewed individually with a small metal French drip filter (ca phe phin). You put the dark-roasted and coarsely ground coffee powder into the phin and pour water on it. Depending on the phin, it can take several minutes for the coffee to drip into the cup or glass, containing condensed milk or sugar. If you want to pour the finished beverage over ice, feel free to do so.

At many roadside kitchens, the coffee is already brewed in advance and stored in plastic bottles under the counter. The coffee lady pours one measure of the concoction over ice and adds the condensed milk on top to create a nice effect of white and brown.