I bought a Vietnamese coffee filter...any tips for its use? [moved from General Chowhounding Topics]

[liu]

I just bought a Vietnamese coffee filter, similar to this:

http://www.quickspice.com/cgi-bin/Sof...

Actually, I bought mine on Amazon (cost about $8.00), but this photo is clearer. Mine is very similar. I also bought Vietnamese coffee.

Has anyone ever used one of these? The instructions are not extremely clear, so if you have any tips for its use, I would love to hear from you.

[stjamesb1]

Place few teaspoons of the ground coffee into the pot. Place the centre post piece (the piece consists of the centre post and the perforated plate) into the pot, twist slightly to tighten up. Pour hot water to the top of the pot. Adjust the centre post to adjust the rate of the drip. It should be very slow drip. Place the cover over the pot while the coffee drip. The cover can be used to hold the pot once the dripping is all done. You will have to experiment to see the strength of the coffee to the number of teapsoons of coffee to add to the pot. Typically this type of coffee is enjoyed with condensed milk or just black and/or ice. Hope this is clearer than other instructions you have received.

[liu]

Thanks, stjamesb1! Your instructions are quite helpful!
I know how good the end product can be...with your guidance, I will now "go for it!"

[chocolateninja]

This webpage (with uberhelpful pictures!) helped me when I finally got my hands on the magic vietnamese coffee filter.

http://www.flexistentialist.org/blog/...

I like the Cafe Du Monde brand lately for my vietnamese coffee (it's the french roast coffee with chicory that comes preground in the yellowish can, from New Orleans).

[liu]

Thanks much, chocolateninja!
What a tutorial you cited...one can even learn to turn on the faucet and make ice cubes...funny! But for the most part, this is really quite helpful, with no details missed!

[liu]

Thanks to both of you, stjamesb1 and chocolateninja! We successfully made Vietnamese coffee this morning...oh-so-good and so "right" tasting.

But then I was not convinced that this little stainless steel Vietnamese coffee filter was the reason for such a great result...perhaps it was just the Vietnamese coffee? I tried the same coffee with a regular drip filter and the results were poor: a watery, thin coffee that was not worth drinking. I played around some more, yet I was not able to achieve the same, thick, syrupy coffee that I could with the Vietnamese filter gizmo.

I am now convinced that this little coffee filter is effective and yields great results. For anyone who enjoys Vietnamese iced coffee, this is a worthwhile purchase. The only thing I am missing is the banh mi!

[kpzoo]

I'm addicted to Vietnamese iced coffee too - just had one this morning, in fact! We had a thread about it recently on the Quebec board in case you want to take a peek.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/430408

I've now tried two different brands of Vietnamese coffee and my fave so far is Trung Nguyen's House Blend, which I found in Chinatown - very full-bodied, almost mocha-flavoured. The label says it's a blend of "Arabica, Robusta, Chari, Catimor" - had never heard of the last two before. Here it sells for $5 for a one-pound box.

http://www.trung-nguyen-online.co.uk/

If you can get your hands on some, check it out!

Have yet to try Café du Monde (which apparently was drunk by US-based Vietnamese immigrants before real Vietnamese coffee started to be imported) mostly because it's nearly twice the price of the coffees imported from Vietnam.

[liu]

Hello, kpzoo!
Instant bond! Trung Nguyen is exactly what we purchased from Amazon along with the stainless Vietnamese coffee filter. We were an easy sell; the two came in a "set," and being new to home brewing of this kind, we jumped at the "set" idea! The one we received and tried this morning was "Premium Blend," and is quite like you describe: with a mocha fragrance.

The ingredients listed are (gotta' get the magnifying glass): Arabica, Robusta, Excelsa -- (so far, so good), Catimor-Coffee-Flavor, Butter Flavor and Cocoa Flavor. So, now we know why we detected a chocolate fragrance.

The can is just short of a pound, so we will be awhile consuming this. I am happy with the results, but of course, I have no comparison other than what I have oftentimes experienced in the Vietnamese shops along with my banh mi.