Our Asian Adventure 2026: you never forget your first time (drinking egg coffee in Hanoi, Vietnam)

If you know me or have read one of my blogs, you know that I am addicted to coffee - not many cups a day, just a couple of cups of rich, dark, quality brew. I thought I had reached the peak of coffee consumption in Singapore with their Hainanese coffee (my blog “Our Asian Adventure:  Singapore, Part 1 - don’t chew gum, maybe try the durian, and do enjoy lots of that amazing Hainanese coffee”); but make space, Singapore, there’s someone else competing for my taste buds.

It should have come as no surprise that coffee is good here in Hanoi, really good.  Second only to Brazil, Vietnam is right at the top of the world’s highest coffee production and exports, known for its production of Robusta beans. Vietnam produces about 31 million bags annually.  It’s production has been assisted by:  “1) Intensive farming techniques 2) High yielding Robusta varieties 3) Competitive export pricing 4) Strong trade partnerships”  (‘Which Country Leads Global Coffee Production and Exports’, amgcoffeexport.com).

The French introduced coffee to Vietnam in the late 19th century, and coffee-drinking  soon became a habit, especially given that the Vietnam soil was perfect for growing beans.  It’s hard to say just how many coffee shops exist in Hanoi because of the preponderance of street stands selling coffee that might or might not be registered. Suffice it to say, you are literally only steps away from a shot of caffeine in a new-style chain or in an old antiquated shop down an alley or sitting on little stools on a sidewalk.

So, coffee, or ‘ca phe’ is serious business here, in more ways than one; and ‘ca phe trung’, or ‘egg coffee’ is the most decadent - it stole my heart and taste buds and went to the top of my ‘best coffee, ever’ list. Egg coffee was discovered in 1946 by Nguyen Van Giang, and you can visit the original location (if you can get in).  A good article is “In Hanoi, don’t rush to get caffeinated” at Vietnamtourism.gov.vn.

So what is egg coffee?  Imagine Robusta espresso topped with a mixture of  egg yolks, sugar, and sweetened condensed milk beaten for about 10 minutes, and topped with a sprinkling of ground coffee or cocoa  for extra flavour.  Egg coffee might sound strange but, trust me, even people like my travelling partner Bev who does not drink coffee, might become addicted and, like her, might consume four cups in four days.

Lo and behold, without planning, we found the original egg coffee shop from 1946, Cafe Giang, only two blocks away from our hotel. But as the lineups  were as expected, we frequented a little shop right next door which has existed since 1956, Hanoi Coffee Culture, but I don’t think it was necessarily second best. (You know you have become familiar with a place after a couple of days when you say to your travelling buddies, “Meet you at 3:00 at 1956”.)

The original:

Not the second best in our books:

At 1956, we watched the energetic young fellows manufacture the perfect egg coffee, just as the recipe states. It takes some skill, I imagine, to make the perfect cup, and they have it down to an art.

You never forget your first time:

Or the second or third . . . .

What does that marvellous concoction taste like? Hmmmm . . . think of liquid tiramisu.

And what about the health repercussions of drinking four egg coffee in four days, you might ask? I probably should have checked before our spree, but they were only small cups . . .

Don’t worry, if egg coffee isn’t your thing, you can opt for coconut coffee or salted coffee which, I was assured, is every bit as good. Bev’s salted coffee (she said it tastes like salted caramel):

So, Hanoi’s egg coffee has stolen my heart for ‘special’ coffee, but don’t worry, Singapore, your Hainanese still tops for a cup of plain black (and Vietnam’s Robusta is pretty darn good, too).

So, whether it’s Singapore’s Hainanese coffee or Hanoi’s egg coffee, just sit back and enjoy.

(Believe it or not, there’s a lot more to Hanoi than egg coffee, and I’ll have a blog for that, too.)