Coffee Connoiseurs - Time for Coffee Talk (Page 2)

The version without condensed milk is called "café da" here and it is very popular. Oddly, café da is mainly consumed by men, and café sua da (the sweet, milky version) by women. I get some funny looks when I order what's considered a man's drink, especially if I ask for it with no sugar. Kind of like an Asian woman ordering herself a whiskey. Cafes here tend to assume foreigners like their coffee sweet and not as strong as locals--you have to convince them otherwise. The ratio of condensed milk to coffee varies hugely from place to place. I educate the people at the places I frequent so they can make the drink the way I like it, and avoid getting it at tourist places. Ordering in Vietnamese (my skills aren't great, but I can really do food and coffee!) also helps. One place makes it with frozen coffee in the ice cubes--yumm! Instead of getting more dilute as the ice melts (you're actually supposed to wait for a while while it does, with café sua da, or you'll be drinking syrupy yuck), it gets stronger!