Tea or coffee?

Everywhere in Vietnam, in every café, there are several unique offerings of tea and coffee. My goal was to try as many as possible. Here are some highlights and our favourites:

1.     Egg coffee or salted egg coffee: see one of the previous entries for information about this delight. This beverage will be served at in our home, without a doubt.

2.     Coconut coffee: on a hot day (and I mean 40-degree hot), a combination of a cold brew with coconut milk is very refreshing. On ice or with the coconut milk in the form of a slushy.

3.     Lemon (lime) coffee: when I saw this on the menu, I thought this combination couldn’t possibly work. Was I ever wrong! A cold brew on ice with freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice turned out to be an excellent blend, much enjoyed by both of us on several occasions.

4.     Vietnamese coffee: tradition, strong and thick coffee over condensed milk. Very good. In fact, Vietnamese coffee beans are unique. They are toasted with some chocolate beans, so there is a definite hint of chocolate in all coffees.

5.     Bael tea: was offered to us after Thai massages. It had a somewhat woody but interesting flavour. Bael is apparently very good for your health. It has anti-bacterial, anti-pyretic, and anti-inflammatory properties, and it has been used since the ancient times to combat fever, dysentery, digestive issues, skin conditions, and other illnesses. It is high in nutrients.

6.     Lotus tea: delicious! Lotus in the national flower of Vietnam, and I loved seeing the white and pink flowers in the countryside and city ponds. Lotus also has lots of health benefits thanks to its high level of antioxidants and other nutrients. Hot tea will help you fall asleep, and ice tea (with or without milk foam, and with sprinkled lotus hearts) will cool you down. The flavour is beautiful and unmistakable. I will be bringing this tea home for sure.

7.     Silk worm poo tea: yes, it is exactly what the name says. It is not available in street corner cafés but we did try it at the silk factory after handling the big wiggly silk worms. We won’t be bringing it home, not because of the gross factor because it is a poo tea, but because there was nothing special in the flavour. Pour me some lotus tea instead any day.

This is not an exhaustive list. We did not have time to try all the coffee and tea types in multiple cafés, found on every corner, sometimes more than one in one block. Without a doubt, there is excellent coffee and tea and Southeast Asia, and we miss it already.