Egg Coffee in Hanoi: What It Is and Where It Came From

Egg coffee, or cà phê trứng, is a Hanoi drink made by topping strong robusta coffee with whisked egg yolk, sugar and condensed milk. It was created in 1946 by Nguyen Van Giang, a bartender at the Metropole hotel, when wartime shortages left the city without fresh milk. It tastes closer to a dessert than a coffee.

Egg Coffee in Hanoi: What It Is and Where It Came From

Most visitors hear about egg coffee before they arrive, and most arrive slightly unsure about it. Egg. In coffee. It sounds like a mistake. It isn't, and the story behind it explains a lot about how Hanoi cooks.

What Is Egg Coffee?

Cà phê trứng is strong black coffee, usually robusta, with a thick whisked topping of egg yolk, sugar and condensed milk. The topping is beaten until it holds like a soft custard, then spooned over the coffee so it sits on the surface rather than mixing in. You drink through the foam, so each mouthful is part sweet cream, part bitter coffee.

The texture surprises people more than the flavour. It's closer to tiramisu than to anything served in a Western café, and there is no eggy taste when it's made properly. Served hot, usually in a small glass set inside a bowl of hot water to keep the foam warm.

Why Was Egg Coffee Invented in Hanoi?

It goes back to 1946. Nguyen Van Giang was working as a bartender at what is now the Sofitel Legend Metropole in Hanoi, serving French-style milk coffee to hotel guests. The First Indochina War had begun, and fresh milk had become almost impossible to get.

Rather than take the drink off the menu, Giang whisked egg yolks with sugar to replace the milk. The result caught on quickly enough that he left the hotel and opened his own café, which his family still runs in the Old Quarter today. That café is now one of the busiest coffee stops in Hanoi, though the drink has spread far beyond it.

This is a fairly ordinary story by Hanoi standards. A shortage, an improvisation, and eighty years later it's on every menu in the city. A lot of what people now think of as traditional Hanoi food started the same way.

What Does Egg Coffee Taste Like?

Sweet, rich, and heavier than most people expect. The robusta underneath is strong and bitter, which is what keeps the whole thing from being cloying. If you don't usually drink sweet coffee, one glass is generally enough, and it works better as an afternoon stop than a morning one.

There's also a version made with cacao instead of coffee, which is worth knowing about if you're travelling with children or anyone avoiding caffeine.

Where to Try Egg Coffee in Hanoi

Egg coffee is on almost every café menu in the Old Quarter now, and quality varies more than price does. The signs of a good one: foam that holds its shape rather than sinking, served hot in a warm-water bath, and coffee strong enough to taste through the topping.

On our Vietnamese coffee workshop, guests whisk the topping themselves, which is usually the point where people realise how much of the result depends on technique rather than ingredients.

Is egg coffee safe to drink?

Yes. The egg yolk is whisked with sugar and condensed milk and served over hot coffee. It's prepared fresh to order at established cafés, which is standard practice across Hanoi.

Does egg coffee taste like eggs?

Not when it's made well. The whisking and the sugar remove the eggy quality, leaving something closer to a sweet custard or tiramisu topping.

How much does egg coffee cost in Hanoi?

Usually somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 VND depending on the café, which is roughly the same as any other speciality coffee in the Old Quarter.

Egg coffee is one of those things that sounds like a novelty and turns out to be an eighty-year-old habit. Worth trying once slowly, sitting down, rather than carrying out in a cup.

See you in Hanoi! 💛

Dung (Emma)

Beyond Vietnam