Ca Phe Sua Da

One cup of Vietnamese Java will make you stand for hours. It’s more 3-4 times more potent than your sissy Starbucks coffee grounds. Vietnamese like to filter the coffee freshly before your eyes. The coffee grounds are placed in a small tin device that sits comfortably on top of a glass. Within the glass can be nothing or some gooey condensed milk. Hot steaming water is placed into the tin device and the fantastic caffeine punch starts to drip through the filter. About 5 minutes later, with some quick stirring of the condensed milk and coffee, you get some sweet hot coffee. But Viet Nam can be blistering hot and humid, so many like to throw in some crushed ice into the glass. And thus the name Ca Phe (coffee) Sua (milk) Da (ice).

There are variations of this killer drink across the country. Some cheap restaurants dilute the volatility of the coffee with corn juice or just too much ice. In the middle of the country, they like it strong. A cup of coffee looks like a shot glass of coffee. Some like it black and then do it without the sua, but instead with repeated spoonfuls of sugar.

But however you spin it, the Vietnamese love their coffee. Coffee shops are the national hang out and coffee drinking is the national past time. You can drink in the morning or in the middle of the night. It’s more popular than the bar (but believe me, the Viets love their beer too).

Fortunately, if you don’t like coffee, fruit blends and juices are second to coffee. Name your fruit and they will blend you a soothing cool drink.

So while you are in Viet Nam, get some java one night to keep you pumping and get some fruit drinks to get you refreshed.