Cà Phê Trứng
Cà phê trứng Say kah-feh CHUNG (northern accent)
A Hanoi speciality born in 1946: a small cup of strong Vietnamese coffee topped with egg yolk whisked with condensed milk into a thick, custardy foam. Served hot in a bowl of warm water, or iced.
- ServedHot & Iced
- In EnglishEgg coffee
- TastesCreamy, Rich, Sweet
About Cà Phê Trứng
Cà phê trứng is Hanoi’s most famous coffee and one of the city’s must-tries. A small cup of strong, dark Vietnamese coffee is crowned with a deep layer of egg yolk beaten with sweetened condensed milk (and often a little sugar) until it turns pale, thick and foamy. The result is sweet, smooth and surprisingly un-eggy – visitors often compare it to a liquid tiramisu.
The hot version is the original. It comes in a small cup standing in a bowl of hot water, which keeps the foam warm while you work through it with a teaspoon. There is also an iced version, lighter and more like a dessert. Some people stir everything together, others sip the coffee slowly through the cream and let the layers mix by themselves.
The classic place to try it is Café Giảng in the Old Quarter, run by the family of the man credited with inventing it, but egg coffee is now on menus all over Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and beyond, alongside spin-offs such as egg cacao.
In the cup
- Whisked egg yolk & condensed milk 55%
- Strong phin coffee 45%
Ingredients
- Dark-roast Vietnamese coffee, ground medium-fine2–3 heaped tsp
- Just-boiled waterabout 60 ml
- Very fresh egg yolk (pasteurised if you prefer)1
- Sweetened condensed milk2 tbsp
- Sugar (optional)1 tsp
- Hot water for the serving bowlas needed
How to make it
You needPhin filter, small cup, shallow bowl, whisk or electric hand mixer
RatioRoughly half coffee, half egg cream by volume; varies by café
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Brew a small, strong coffee with a phin directly into your serving cup.
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Stand the cup in a bowl of hot water to keep it warm.
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Whisk the egg yolk with the condensed milk (and sugar, if using) for 5–10 minutes until thick, pale and foamy.
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Spoon the egg cream gently over the coffee so it floats as a thick layer.
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Serve straight away with a teaspoon; for the iced version, pour the coffee over ice first and top with the cream.
Origin & history
Egg coffee is credited to Nguyễn Văn Giảng, a bartender at Hanoi’s Métropole hotel (today the Sofitel Legend Metropole). In 1946, during the First Indochina War, fresh milk was hard to come by, so he whisked egg yolk with sugar and condensed milk as a substitute for dairy in coffee.
The drink was popular enough that Giảng left hotel work and opened his own café, Café Giảng, which his family still runs, with other branches around Hanoi. The family keeps the exact recipe secret; it is reported to include butter or cheese as well as yolk and condensed milk.
The recipe was refined over the years to make the egg flavour subtler, and electric blenders made the long whisking easier. By the 1980s it was well established in Hanoi, and today it has spread to coffee shops across Vietnam and abroad.
Variations
- Cà phê trứng đáiced egg coffee, lighter and more dessert-like (Vietnam)
- Ca cao trứngegg cream on hot chocolate, caffeine-free (Vietnam)
- Matcha trứngegg cream on matcha, a modern café twist (Vietnam)
- Egg coffee with cocoasome Hanoi cafés dust or blend cocoa into the cream (Vietnam)
Good to know
Use the teaspoon: the foam is thick enough to eat. Either stir it in or sip the coffee through it slowly.
Leave the cup in its bowl of hot water until you are ready – that is what keeps the foam warm.
The egg is raw or only lightly heated. Pregnant travellers and anyone wary of raw egg may want to skip it or pick a café that warms the mixture over a water bath.
Café Giảng sits up a narrow passage on Nguyễn Hữu Huân Street in Hanoi's Old Quarter – easy to walk past.
No caffeine? Try ca cao trứng (egg cacao), made the same way on a hot chocolate base.
