Bạc Xỉu (Vietnamese White Coffee)
Drink · Vietnamese · Asian
Mostly milk with a little coffee: condensed milk and fresh milk over ice, with cold coffee poured on top. A Saigon drink from the city’s Cantonese-speaking Chinese community.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Vietnamese Coffee page.
Ingredients
For the coffee (makes enough for 8)
- 2 quarts (about 1.9 L) water
- 1½ cups (120 g) ground coffee, robusta, arabica or a dark-roast blend
For each drink
- 2 tablespoons (40 g) sweetened condensed milk
- ⅓ cup (80 g) cold whole milk, or reduced-fat, oat or almond milk
- 1½ cups (240 g) ice
- ½ cup (120 g) of the cold brewed coffee
Directions
Key ingredients
- Make the coffee ahead: bring the water to a boil, take it off the heat, stir in the coffee and steep for 5 minutes.
- Strain the coffee well into a pitcher and refrigerate until cold.
- For each drink, put the condensed milk in a tall glass, add the fresh milk and stir gently, without whipping in air.
- Fill the glass to the top with ice, packing it right up to the rim.
- Pour the cold coffee slowly over the ice so it sits in a layer on top of the milk. Stir before drinking.
Notes
Where this comes from After Vicky Pham’s “Vietnamese White Coffee with Fresh Milk (Bạc Xỉu)” (2026). Her recipe gives “⅓ cup (110 g)” of milk; ⅓ cup of milk weighs about 80 g, which is used here. Weigh it if you prefer her 110 g, which is nearer ½ cup. With a phin instead She also gives a single-glass version: about 2 tablespoons of coffee brewed in a phin with about ¾ cup of water, bloomed for 20 seconds, then poured over the milk and ice. The name Bạc tẩy xỉu phé is usually explained as Cantonese for “a white glass with a little coffee”. The photo A plastic cup of pale iced milk coffee in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, 2022. Its filename calls it bạc xỉu and its description cà phê sữa đá; it is not this recipe’s cup.