Vietnamese Drip Coffee

I love coffee.  Many words can describe my adoration but let me start by saying the opposite, without coffee, the light bulb in my head won't work.  I need this light bulb ON most of the day and hence, my craving for great coffee - both flavor and aroma.  Believe me, i'm still at my infancy compared to the die hard Cappuccino and Latte fans of Starbucks but i'm beginning to truly appreciate unadulterated coffee - simple to prepare, no fuss, just pure coffee goodness.

So here comes our discovery of the Vietnamese way of preparing coffee - the all natural use of gravity to slowly let the coffee trickle down from the coffee press.  The result is oozing coffee madness -- my light bulb is fully charged 24/7 without a need for another cup.

I have to give credit to my husband for introducing me to the Vietnamese "drip" coffee.  He came back from Vietnam with a pair of stainless metal drip coffee filter.    It is a summation of four essential accessories (from top to bottom) - the cover, the container, the filter, and the coffee press.

 To get started, measure a full tablespoon of ground coffee and press firmly at the base of the filter, cover with the coffee press.  Add hot water to fill half the metal container. Depending on how strong you want your coffee to be, you can add more ground coffee but it is recommended not to dilute with more water while on the coffee press, you can do that later after all the coffee has dripped.  This is to make sure you don't loose on the richness of the flavor.

My husband bought the Nam Nguyen ground coffee from Vietnam, i'm not too sure where to buy Vietnam coffee in Singapore yet but, the method of course can be re-applied with any other coffee powder. I'm thinking to use (for next time) the native coffee used in most Kopitiam, that would be an interesting take of the fave Singapore Kopi-O.

Traditionally in Vietnam, they use condensed milk  as the sweetener instead of sugar.  If you want it black, you can just go for the pure coffee drip.  After 3-5mins of wait, the coffee is ready to go!

The iced coffee version is equally nice to quench the thirst.  Fill up a drinking glass with ice cubes, pour in the freshly prepared drip coffee, stir, add more condensed milk as required.

Coffee cheers, everyone!