Baseline recipe
- Coffee
- 16 g
- Water
- 120 g
- Grind
- Medium-fine (fine sand)
- Temperature
- Just off the boil (205°F / 96°C)
- Time
- 4–5 minutes
- Ratio
- 1:6 – 1:9
Scale this recipe or diagnose the next cup with the Brew Compass.
A phin is a small metal filter that sits on top of your cup: a perforated chamber for the coffee, a press insert that rests on the grounds, and a lid. Hot water drips through by gravity alone, with no pressure, over about five minutes, and what comes out is short, strong, and dark.
In Vietnam it is most often drunk with sweetened condensed milk, and very often over ice as cà phê sữa đá. The condensed milk is not a shortcut. The strong, chocolatey coffee is brewed to stand up to it.
The tradeoff is a little fiddliness at first. The drip rate is set by the grind and by how the insert sits, and both take a brew or two to learn. Once they are right, the phin is one of the easiest methods on this site.
Start with this recipe
For one cup. You need a phin, a heatproof cup or glass, and a kettle.
- If you want it sweet, put 1–2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk in the bottom of the cup. Set the phin’s plate on top of the cup.
- Add 16g of coffee, ground medium-fine, to the chamber. Shake it gently so the bed is level.
- Place the press insert on the grounds. It should rest in firm contact with the coffee, not squash it.
- Start a timer and pour 20g of water just off the boil to wet the grounds. Wait 30 seconds while the coffee blooms.
- Pour 100g more water to fill the chamber, and put the lid on.
- The first drops should fall within about 2 minutes, and the last by 4–5 minutes.
- Lift off the phin and stir the coffee into the condensed milk. Drink it hot, or pour it over a glass full of ice.
You get about 90g of very strong coffee, roughly 3 ounces, because the grounds hold back some of the water.
The ratio can run from about 1:6 to 1:9: a little less water for a stronger, syrupier cup, a little more for a lighter one.
Getting the drip right
Everything about a phin comes down to how fast the water gets through. Aim for the first drops before about two minutes and the last at four to five.
| What happens | Likely cause | First change |
|---|---|---|
| Finished in under 3 minutes, thin cup | Grind too coarse, or insert too loose | Grind finer, or seat the insert a little more firmly |
| Takes over 6 minutes, bitter cup | Grind too fine, or insert too tight | Grind coarser, and let the insert rest more loosely |
| Stops dripping altogether | Suction, or blocked holes | Lift the insert for a second or two to break the suction, then clean the holes |
Change one thing at a time: the grind first, then the insert. If your insert screws down, turn it only until it touches the coffee. It is there to keep the bed level, not to pack it.
The coffee
Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee producer, and almost all of what it grows is robusta. Traditional Vietnamese coffee is robusta, or a blend heavy in it, roasted dark. That is where the heavy, chocolatey, slightly bitter flavor comes from, and why it cuts through condensed milk so well.
Robusta also carries around one and a half to two times the caffeine of arabica, so a phin of it is stronger than it looks; see which coffee has the most caffeine.
Any dark roast works in a phin. A light roast will brew too, but it tastes brighter and thinner, and loses much of what makes the drink what it is.
Four ways to order it
| Name | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cà phê đen nóng | Black, hot |
| Cà phê đen đá | Black, over ice |
| Cà phê sữa nóng | With condensed milk, hot |
| Cà phê sữa đá | With condensed milk, over ice |
For the iced versions, stir the coffee and condensed milk together in the cup first, then pour it over a tall glass of ice so the sweetness mixes evenly.
Scaling
Phins come in several sizes, but each brews one batch at a time, and more coffee than the chamber was made for will not drip properly. For two cups, use two phins or brew twice.
Fix the cup
| What you notice | Likely cause | First change |
|---|---|---|
| Sour or thin | Dripped too fast | Grind finer |
| Bitter or harsh | Dripped too slowly | Grind coarser, or loosen the insert |
| Weak but pleasant | Too little coffee | Use about 1g more |
| Too strong | Too much coffee | Use about 1g less, or add more ice |
| Silty | Fine particles through the metal filter | Grind slightly coarser |
The Brew Compass turns any of these into one change for the next cup.
Cleaning
Rinse the phin as soon as it is cool enough to handle, and check that the holes in the chamber and insert are clear. Oils and fine particles clog them over time and slow the drip. Wash it with a little soap now and then.
No phin? A Moka Pot or a strong AeroPress makes coffee concentrated enough to pour over condensed milk and ice. For a make-ahead version, cold brew concentrate works too, though it tastes smoother and less bitter than phin coffee.