Vietnamese iced coffee

Cà phê đá

Cà phê sữa nóng, a hot variation
Alternative names	Vietnamese iced coffee, cafe da
Type	Beverage
Place of origin	Vietnam
Serving temperature	Hot or Cold
Main ingredients	dark roast coffee, water, sweetened condensed milk

Vietnamese iced coffee, also known as cà phê đá or cafe da (Vietnamese: cà phê đá, literally "ice coffee") is a traditional Vietnamese coffee recipe.

At its simplest, cà phê đá is made using medium to coarse ground dark roast Vietnamese-grown coffee with a small metal Vietnamese drip filter (phin cà phê). After the hot water is added, the drip filter releases drops of hot coffee slowly into a cup. This finished cup of hot coffee is then quickly poured into a glass full of ice making the finished Vietnamese iced coffee.

A popular way to drink Vietnamese coffee is cà phê sữa đá, which is Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk. This is done by filling up with the coffee cup with about 2-3 tablespoons (more if you like your coffee on the sweeter side) of sweetened condensed milk prior to the drip filter process.

Coffee was introduced into Vietnam in 1857 by a French Catholic priest in the form of a single Coffea arabica tree. Vietnam quickly became a strong exporter of coffee with many plantations in the central highlands. The beverage was adopted with regional variations. Because of limitations on the availability of fresh milk, as the dairy farming industry was still in its infancy, the French and Vietnamese began to use sweetened condensed milk with a dark roast coffee.