A modern classic from Huế: strong Robusta dripped onto condensed milk and topped with a lightly salted cream foam. Stir it and the salt rounds off the bitterness into something close to salted caramel.
ServedHot & Iced
In EnglishSalt coffee
TastesCreamy, Salty, Sweet
About Cà Phê Muối
Cà phê muối comes from Huế, Vietnam’s old imperial capital, and is the youngest of the country’s signature coffees. Strong, dark Robusta is dripped through a phin onto sweetened condensed milk, then topped with a soft foam of cream whipped with a pinch of salt and a little condensed milk.
The salt is there for flavour, not as a trick to hide bitterness: once stirred, the coffee tastes rounder and creamier, with a salty-sweet finish many people compare to salted caramel. Even people who don’t usually like strong coffee often enjoy it.
At the original café in Huế you can drink it warm or add ice yourself. Elsewhere it is usually served iced and ready-made, sometimes with a dusting of cinnamon or cocoa. In the last few years it has spread from Huế to Đà Nẵng and Hội An, then to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnamese cafés abroad.
You needPhin filter, glass, small bowl and whisk or milk frother
RatioVaries; roughly two to three parts coffee-and-condensed-milk to one part salted cream
01
Put the condensed milk in a glass and brew the coffee through a phin on top of it.
02
Meanwhile whisk the cream with a small pinch of salt and a teaspoon of condensed milk until soft and foamy, not stiff.
03
Stir the coffee and condensed milk together; add ice if you want it cold.
04
Spoon the salted cream on top so it forms a thick layer.
05
Stir before drinking and adjust the salt next time – it should taste rounded, not salty.
the story
Origin & history
Salt coffee is generally credited to Trần Nguyễn Hữu Phong and Hồ Thị Thanh Hương, a couple who created it for their small café in Huế to attract customers. Sources give the date as 2010 or “around 2012”. Their café, simply called Cà Phê Muối (“Salt Coffee”), became one of the city’s best-known stops and is still at 10 Nguyễn Lương Bằng.
The couple kept their recipe secret but never patented the idea. By the late 2010s similar versions had appeared in neighbouring cafés, then across central Vietnam – Đà Nẵng and Hội An – and in recent years in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (where one seller grew a chain of more than 20 outlets) and Vietnamese cafés abroad.
Romantic origin stories also circulate – a newlywed who mixed up salt and sugar, or a nervous young man who salted his coffee on a first date – but they are popular tales, not history.
same idea, different cup
Variations
Iced salt coffeethe most common version outside Huế (Vietnam)
With cinnamonthe cream dusted with cinnamon, as served at some Hanoi cafés (Vietnam)
Salted-rim salt coffeeserved with a salted glass rim like a margarita (Ho Chi Minh City)
Salt coffee beera limited-edition craft beer brewed in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
like a local
Good to know
Stir before drinking so the salted cream blends into the coffee and condensed milk.
The original is Cà Phê Muối at 10 Nguyễn Lương Bằng, Huế, with a second branch at 142 Đặng Thái Thân near the Citadel.
Outside Huế recipes vary – some cafés dust the foam with cinnamon or salt the rim of the glass.
Can't find it? Search maps for “cà phê muối” – it is now on menus all over Vietnam.
