Get Hard-To-Find Creamy Vietnamese Egg Coffee at These Three Cafes

Ca phe trung, or Vietnamese egg coffee, is a creamy, two-layer drink with a frothy, egg-and-condensed-milk cloud sitting on top of robusta coffee.

The origin of the drink is often credited to Giang Nguyen, a bartender who was working at Hanoi’s Hotel Metropole in 1946. During a milk shortage, he found that when egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk are whipped, they create a delicate and creamy foam. Nguyen used the whipped egg foam as a way to make cafe au lait without milk – and so the egg coffee was born.

Multi-layer and foamy beverages including Mont Blancs, Chinese cheese tea and other bubble tea drinks have been gaining popularity in Melbourne for years, but egg coffee has remained relatively hard to find. So if you’ve been hunting for egg coffee in Melbourne, your search is over – these three venues have you covered.

Chè Desserts, CBD

Chè has been bringing Vietnamese desserts inspired by childhood nostalgia to the CBD since 2018. Chè’s egg coffee is traditional in style and made using free-range eggs and real vanilla beans. Owner Tung Nguyen says it “smells like affogato with eggnog,” and tastes like “a cup of liquid tiramisu.”

The way to enjoy egg coffee, Nguyen adds, is layer-by-layer. “You don’t stir the layers, instead, sipping through the egg cream to taste the sweet richness first, then the bold coffee underneath.”

Cham, West Melbourne

A recent trip to Vietnam inspired Cham head chef and co-owner Tony Nguyen to put egg coffee on the menu. During his visit, he saw many cafes combining third-wave coffee brewing techniques with culturally significant drinks including ca phe trung. “Egg foam is very versatile. They’re having iced egg coffee and pairing egg foam with matcha and hot chocolate,” he says.

At Cham, egg coffee is ground and dripped to order, using naturally processed robusta beans from Vietnam-based specialty roaster Every Half. For the egg foam, the team sous vides egg yolks to pasteurise them and whisks them with condensed milk and vanilla essence. Cham’s egg coffee is served hot, but come summer, the team will serve iced egg coffees and matcha with egg foam.

Ba Ba Rolls, South Melbourne

The team at Ba Ba Rolls brings family recipes to the Food Hall at South Melbourne Market. While the shop is better known for its crispy banh mi and roasted duck dishes, it also offers specialty drinks including salted cream lattes and egg coffee.

“Egg coffee is deeply tied to Vietnamese culture and dates back to the French colonial period”, owner Jenny Tran says. “That tradition makes it more than just coffee, it’s part of our history and our everyday life.”

Ba Ba Rolls makes egg coffee to order, ensuring the whipped egg foam is fresh for each cup. It’s topped with a dusting of chocolate powder and paired with a chocolate wafer. Tran describes the resulting drinks as “a harmony of bitter and sweet, creamy and bold, rich and velvety, but not too heavy.”