Has anyone spotted Vietnamese coffee, in a store (Basel-Zurich axis) or even online in the EU? I'm running low on my reserves and need to restock.

Looks like Trung Nguyen varieties are available in .de online stores, but I'd like to support smaller producers/growers/distributors, and whole beans would be nice. (At least there's a backup option.)

Cheers,
//ata

This place might have it. It is the biggest importer of Asian food items in Switzerland and every Saturday, people flock there from all over Switzerland to do their groceries and eat Pho. (They only cook authentic food on Saturdays)

Hi Try Asiaway, supermarket and resto in the Oerlikon(part of Zurich). They hve a website,so you can find tel. number to call and ask and to get their address. I love VN coffee, nd I didn't relaize you need a special blend.I thought it was just the process, with that little guzmo which sits on your cup and lets the coffee drip through and then just adding condensed milk. The resto there is excellent and I know, because my husband is VN. Good Luck. Rainy

Vietnamese coffee with the faint aroma of Agent Orange

.... as served at the Hanoi Hilton.

I don't think you need a special blend (if you buy beans you obviously aren't getting a blend) to make the vietnamese (or Thai) style coffee with condensed milk.

Even Spain has a version (called a "bonbon") which is a layer of thick condensed milk in a shot glass, topped by an espresso.

However, what Vietnamese coffee is relatively famous for is when it's ground and blended with chickory. I have some of this and it's tasty! It was originally done to cheapen the brew (hickory is cheaper than coffee) but the taste somehow stuck and became popular.

That's my understanding, anyway.

Do you mean hickory like the wood or chicory as in the vegetable. New Orleans coffee often contains chicory.

Chicory is a coffee substitute http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_substitute

tho beans roasted with Hickory wood, might be interesting mmm got me thinkin' BBQ on such a beautiful day

Beans are often sold as a blend. (e.g. espresso blends that may be 90/10 arabica/robusta). And you probably mean chicory rather than hickory; which is popular in India and South East Asia. There's an old brand of coffee with chicory from Britain (Camp Coffee) which I remember drinking as a kid (before I knew what espresso was...).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...8JmFfeY#t=176s

They sell chicory coffee here. Is that the "vietnamese coffee" that the OP is looking for?

Thank you for the information! I must go there 1 saturday for PHO!
By the way, i am going to vietnam this december. Anyone want trung nguyen coffee? I may bring some bags

Cafe Royal in Winterthur.

http://www.royalcoffee.ch

I used to buy it there at lot. The price is about 14 CHF for a kilo of arabica. They also have special blends called Victoria (but was very expensive). The guy who sells is also very nice.

The shop must be still there, have not been there for couple of months.

Yes please. Can you bring the little coffee filter and glass as well? (Is that cheeky of me to ask?)

I used to go to a Vietnamese restaurant in town just for this coffee with condensed milk you speak off...

Hmm, i miss that kind of coffee so much. Sometimes i just bought condensed milk to make coffee myself at home and drank alone, as my husband - also a Roesti - maybe your relative - doesn't like it

Nah, family is from Europe but I'm not an Eidgenosse...I picked the name Roesti, as that's where I think I would want to live in CH, somewhere like Freibourg, or Jura Bernois.

Sorry, not chicory, and espresso with condensed milk won't do either. (Espresso is reserved for when I'm out of viet. And no, not Lavazza or Starbucks. Could be dioxin. Or maybe heroin, it's that addictive.

Actually, as far as I know, it's the roasting that's bit tricky: slow roast, with butter (or oil?), sugar, and yes, some sort of spice. A purist would surely be mortified. Some roasters throw in at least vanilla, and I have heard chicory mentioned before. Still not the same as chicory coffee, though.

Thanks all, I'll see if I can't find something based on this. VietnameseMom, if you were to bring some Trung Nguyen #4, I'd gladly buy 5 bags off you. (That was the favorite grocery store make from the pretty comprehensive sampler set we got on our visit. But whatever non-branded stuff every roadside shack brewed was frankly the best...)

Haha, we have the filter already, glasses we have a lot! So maybe you can join us one time to know the real taste of vietnamese filtered coffee?

Ok, i will bring you 5 bags number 4! Just pm me your address