Anyone who comes to Vietnam will gradually feel familiar with the image of Vietnamese people drinking coffee every morning. Coffee is not only a passionate drink but also a habit and culture of Vietnamese people. Coffee is present all over the world, but Vietnamese coffee has its own characteristics that are hard to replicate anywhere.

Vietnamese people see the habit of drinking coffee as a simple way to start the day. Most coffee shops in Vietnam open quite early. Especially the toad cafes, sidewalk cafes, they usually open around 6 am. In recent years, many big-brand coffee chains have sprung up, foreign coffee brands have also been introduced into Vietnam, however, besides international popular cafes, coffee shops Sidewalk coffee, toad coffee or typical Vietnamese-style coffee have not lost their place.

Sidewalk coffee is often served to regular customers in a certain area, so the guests and owners are as familiar with each other as family. They greet each other, laugh with each other every new day, and share stories of everyday life. The sidewalk cafe is very simple, usually with only a few sets of low wooden or plastic tables and chairs placed close together. The dispensing area is sometimes indoors, sometimes a small cart on the sidewalk. The menu of sidewalk coffee is also simple with a few basic coffee dishes such as black coffee, milk coffee, “bac xiu”...

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Vietnamese people are used to drinking strong brewed coffee. The brewed coffee is thick, jet-black, iridescent, the aftertaste of coffee after drinking is still lingering on the tip of the tongue, the enchanting bitter taste. Vietnamese people make coffee using many different tools, which has since created many famous specialty coffees around the world. The famous sidewalk cafe has racket coffee and filter coffee. As strange as it sounds, racket coffee is cooked in a pot or crock pot on a charcoal stove, using a cloth rack to store the coffee. When the coffee is boiling enough, the seller lifts the coffee racket out of the pot, the thick black coffee flows down the passionately fragrant cooking pot in a corner of the neighborhood. Filtered coffee is even more popular. Coffee is put into an aluminum or stainless steel filter, compacted with a perforated block so that steam and water can easily circulate and crept into each coffee bean. When enough boiling water is soaked, the coffee beans expand, blend in with the water and then through the small holes in the bottom of the filter, drop by drop of rich coffee into the cup.

Guests who come to the shop just naturally choose a seat, relax, and then turn to the owner, call: "For a glass of ice black/ice brown/hot brown...please!" A few minutes later, the expected cup of coffee was brought out. That alone is enough for a long day.

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Coffee is like a picture of emotions with countless colors. Bitter black coffee, sipping black coffee, listening to the bitter aftertaste lingering in the mouth, sitting and watching the streets has long become a hard habit of the majority of Vietnamese people. Milk coffee is the neutralization of sweet and bitter. The taste that once melted on the tip of the tongue, people will be hard to forget. Intense, delicate and delicately fragrant. Egg coffee is greasy, coffee foam is as smooth as cream, cherishing emotions and like a gentle comforting word.

Vietnamese people rarely call the name of a type of coffee, they often call it abbreviated and everyone implicitly understands exactly what that coffee is. For example, Vietnamese people often call black coffee mixed with condensed milk brown. In a coffee shop, if you hear someone ordering an "ice brown", it means they want a cup of black coffee with condensed milk, with ice cubes added. Or egg coffee - hot black coffee whipped with rich, greasy egg yolks will often be referred to simply as "hot egg cups" by patrons.

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Through the morning coffee hours, Vietnamese people sit together, whisper to each other about their plans in life, they share their joys and sorrows. Sometimes, someone needs to be listened to, needs to confide in, or simply wants to see the street, they just need to pick up the phone, call a friend or relative, and send a message: "Coffee is not available?" is enough for a poetic date with a passionate cup of coffee.

The culture of enjoying coffee is different from place to place. Huongmai Cafe hopes this article will bring Vietnamese coffee culture closer to readers.