Yogurt coffee - sidelined to signature

My relationship with yogurt coffee was shaky from the start. Our first encounter, before Phin opened, was at Tractor Brew Bar, a tenuous marriage between cafe and living room whose quarrels spilled out onto a busy Sài Gòn sidewalk. In other words, the coffee shop was identical to hundreds of others around the city in all but name.

But upon closer inspection, Tractor hid on its menu something unusual: yogurt coffee.

I was raised on cà phê sữa, in which condensed milk neutralizes coffee’s astringent compounds. Yogurt, fermented and tart, only seems to add its own mouth-drying sensations. The combination caused my tongue to recoil at first sip, wanting nothing more than to return to the syrupy embrace of familiarity. But, unsurprisingly, Vietnamese yogurt also contains a little condensed milk. Not enough to make it Yoplait sweet but, done right, balances it in a pleasant way that takes some getting used to.

I tried another sip. And another. Each taste further convinced me of yogurt coffee’s deserved place among the Vietnamese coffee pantheon. Its smooth texture is distinct from drinks made with heavy cream. It glides rather than clings. It’s dense and weighty on the tongue but sparks the taste buds with a bright acidity. I dare say it’s the most “refreshing” drink on the menu.

It went on Phin’s starting menu, immediately raising eyebrows and becoming Phin’s most controversial drink, splitting those who understands it (and therefore loves it) and those who finds it “weird.”

Guests regularly pause on it as they scan the menu, having no reference point to grasp what yogurt coffee might be in a way they could with other drinks like coconut coffee and salt cream coffee. They would ask me to describe it, oohing and aahing dubiously before choosing something else.

Faced with such timidness (“Just try it!” I’m screaming in my head) and unable to adequately convey what I love about yogurt coffee, I became frustrated with the drink. I resentfully took it off the menu, using its low sales to justify the decision. I put up a new menu, sans yogurt coffee, relieved that I would never have to answer another question about it.

But unbeknownst to me, a foodie with apparent influence had, at the same time, posted about my yogurt coffee on social media. A wave of customers came straight for it. Their only question upon looking at the yogurt-less menu: Do you have yogurt coffee?

At the end of that weekend, and many yogurt coffees later, I could only laugh at the absurdity that we sometimes call fate. I got the hint, the reminder, the encouragement.

Tractor Brew Bar is now only a memory, having closed at some point between my first visit and this newsletter. But not before leaving its signature on my coffee journey. There’s nothing else to do but to make yogurt coffee my signature drink at Phin.