A2 Milk Moment - Vietnamese Iced latte

Vietnamese coffee ground dark and dripped slow through a phin until it pools dark and bittersweet in a glass, then poured over ice and full-cream A2 milk. The drip takes ten minutes; the payoff is a layered glass with sweetened condensed depth and a clean coffee bite. A Saigon street staple, built for hot afternoons.

The phin is the Vietnamese single-cup drip filter, a small metal cylinder with a perforated insert that sits over a glass. Ground coffee goes inside, the filter plate is pressed down lightly, boiling water is poured to the top, and gravity does the rest. The slow drip (around eight to ten minutes for a full extraction) produces a thick, syrupy coffee that's closer to an espresso in density than to a Western drip coffee.

Vietnamese coffee is traditionally Robusta rather than Arabica, with twice the caffeine content and a more bitter, chocolatey flavour profile. Trung Nguyen is the most widely available Vietnamese coffee brand outside the country; any French-roast robusta with a dark, oily bean will do the job.

The A2 milk substitution for the traditional sweetened condensed milk is the modern lighter version. The full-cream A2 retains the dairy richness without the cloying sweetness of condensed milk; honey or simple syrup added to taste if you want more sweetness. Stir hard before drinking so the layers blend. A Saigon afternoon drink, equally at home in a Melbourne heat wave.