A small metal drip filter is placed atop a cup, filled with coarse-to-medium ground coffee, and slowly drips hot water through under gravity, typically over sweetened condensed milk for the traditional serving style.
Coffee-to-water ratio
150–200 g per litre (typically 180)
Grind
Medium-fine to medium-coarse, depending on the size of the filter's holes.
Water temperature, as commonly used
90-96 celsius (typically 93)°C
Contact time
240-360 seconds (typically 300)
Skill level
beginner
Descriptive grind labels like this are illustrative starting points, not precise measurements — the same label can mean different particle sizes on different grinders. See the grind size guide for how to dial this in on your own equipment.
In short
A phin is a small metal filter that sits on top of a cup or glass. It has four parts: a saucer-like base with holes, a chamber that holds the coffee, a perforated press that rests on the grounds, and a lid. Hot water poured into the chamber drips through slowly, one cup at a time.
It makes a small volume of very strong coffee, and it is meant to. The brew is built to be mixed with sweetened condensed milk, poured over ice, or both, and a normal filter-strength coffee would disappear under either.
A brewer designed to be slow
CoffeeHQ explanation
There is no paper and no pressure. Water passes through the coffee under its own weight, and through small holes in metal above and below the bed. The press sitting on top of the grounds keeps them from floating and holds the bed together, which slows the water further.
A slow drip through a lot of coffee with very little water is what produces the concentration. The metal holes let oils and some fine particles through, so the cup is heavy-bodied and slightly cloudy, closer in texture to a French press than to a paper pour-over.
How much coffee and water
Typical range
The chamber sets the limits. For the common single-serving size, most instructions amount to a few spoonfuls of coffee and a small cup of water.
How much coffee and water
Variable
Typical range
What moving it does
Coffee
About 15–20 g for a single-serving phin
Enough to fill the chamber roughly a third to a half.
Water
About 80–120 ml
Added in two stages: a small splash to bloom, then the rest.
Coffee to water
About 150–200 g per litre (roughly 1:5 to 1:7)
Several times stronger than ordinary filter coffee.
Grind
Medium-fine to medium-coarse, depending on the phin
Fine enough to slow the drip, coarse enough not to fall through the holes. The holes differ from one phin to another, so the drip time is the better guide.
Drip time
About 4–6 minutes
A steady drip, about one drop a second, is the usual guide.
A starting point, not a recipe to hit. Phins are sold in several sizes and with screw-down or gravity presses, so treat these as a guide for a small one and adjust by the drip and by taste.
Brewing a cup
Widely documented
Prepare the cup. If you are making it the traditional sweet way, put a spoonful or two of sweetened condensed milk in the glass first, then set the phin on top.
Add coffee and the press. Level the grounds and rest the press on them. With a gravity press, simply drop it in; with a screw press, turn it until it just meets the coffee.
Bloom. Pour in just enough hot water to wet the grounds and wait about half a minute. This lets the coffee swell so the main pour drips evenly.
Fill and cover. Fill the chamber, put the lid on to hold the heat, and let it drip until it stops.
Stir, and add ice if you like. Stir the coffee into the condensed milk. For the iced version, pour the mixture over a glass full of ice.
Two small habits help. Rinse the phin and the glass with hot water first, since a small metal filter loses heat quickly over a brew this long, and dry the chamber if it is still wet from washing. And lift the hot filter off by its rim or with a cloth: the lid, turned over, is the tray it rests on.
From the first glass to your own: change one thing
CoffeeHQ explanation
A phin has no dial. What you can change is how much coffee goes in, how it is ground and how the press sits, and the drip tells you which of them to touch.
Brew one glass and watch the drip. Notice when the first drops fall, whether they stay separate drops or run as a stream, and when the chamber is empty. Taste a spoonful of the coffee before any milk or ice goes in, then taste it the way you mean to drink it.
Judge it as it is served. This brew is made strong and dark on purpose, to stand up to condensed milk and ice. Black and hot it will taste fierce, and that is not a fault. Decide whether it is right once the milk is in.
Too fast or too slow: the grind, then the press. If it ran through as a stream, grind finer. If it barely drips, rest the press more lightly or loosen a screw-down one before changing the grind. Wetting the grounds and waiting before you fill makes the drip steadier whichever way it was wrong.
Drip time about right, taste wrong: the amount of coffee. Thin once the ice has melted into it: a little more coffee for the same water. Harsh even with milk: a little less. Strength follows the amounts, and in the one panel study of drip coffee CoffeeHQ has read, bitterness rose with strength. That study used one drip brewer and not a phin, so it is a reason to try less coffee and not a finding about phins.
Change the coffee last. Dark-roasted robusta is the traditional choice and is bitter by design. If that is what you dislike, a lighter roast or an arabica blend changes the drink more than any adjustment to the filter, and it becomes a different drink.
Too fast, too slow
CoffeeHQ explanation
It runs through in a minute or two and tastes thin
Usually because: The grind is too coarse, there is too little coffee, or the press is too loose to hold the bed.
Usually because: The grind is too fine and has blocked the holes, or a screw press has been tightened too far.
Change first: Loosen the press slightly; if that does not help, grind coarser.
Bitter even with milk
Usually because: Very dark roasts, a very slow drip and a lot of coffee for the water all push bitterness, and some of it is the style, since the milk is there to balance it.
Change first: If it dripped much more slowly than usual, grind a step coarser. If the drip was normal, use a little less coffee before changing the roast.
Usually because: Perforated metal lets some fine particles through, and a grind fine enough to pass the holes lets through more.
Change first: Grind a little coarser and leave the last sip. A little sediment is normal for a metal filter.
Making more, and washing up
CoffeeHQ explanation
A small phin makes one glass. Adding more water to the same coffee gives a longer, weaker drink and not a second serving, because the chamber sets how much coffee the water can pass through. For two people, brew two phins side by side or use one of the larger sizes, keeping roughly the same proportion of coffee to water and expecting the grind to need a small change.
Cleaning is the easy part: knock out the grounds, take the pieces apart and rinse them, making sure the holes in the base and the press are clear, since a blocked hole slows the next brew. Dry it before it is used again. Whether it can go in a dishwasher depends on the metal and the maker, so check for your own.
The coffee the phin was built around
Sourced
Vietnam is the world's largest producer of robusta, and the phin tradition grew up around it. Robusta is typically roasted dark for this purpose and is more bitter, heavier in body and higher in caffeine than arabica.
Sweetened condensed milk became the usual partner because it keeps without refrigeration, and its sweetness and fat soften exactly the qualities that make a dark robusta hard to drink black. A phin works with any coffee, but a light, delicate arabica brewed this strong can taste sharp, and the drink it makes is a different one.
What to do next
Vietnamese iced coffee — The drink this brewer is best known for, with amounts for the milk and ice.
The phin as an object — Its four parts, gravity against screw-down presses, sizes and metals, and one maker's guide to drip times.
Become a barista — A structured programme from dose and grind through milk, drinks and maintenance.
Owning a phin: the parts, the drip and what varies between one phin and another
The sections above give the amounts, the steps and what to change. This part is about living with the object: what to do with a new one, what each piece does, why two phins behave differently, and how to read the drip. It does not turn a phin into a small pour-over. The brew is strong, slow and a little cloudy on purpose.
Your maker's instructions come first. There is no one maker and no manual. Phins are made by many workshops and factories, in several sizes, with presses that rest on the coffee or screw down onto it, and holes that differ from one to the next. Nothing here is a maker's instruction. If yours came with a leaflet, on washing especially, follow it.
I have just bought one. What do I do first?
Take it apart and see which kind you have. A plate or saucer with holes, a chamber, a press and a lid. Look at the press: one that simply drops in is a gravity press; one with a threaded post is a screw-down press. They are adjusted differently.
Wash and dry every piece. New metal can carry oil or polish from the workshop. Wash it with warm water and washing-up liquid, rinse well, and hold the base and the press up to the light to see that the holes are clear.
Choose a glass or cup it sits on steadily. The plate has to rest flat on the rim. A clear glass lets you watch the drip, which is the main thing a phin shows you.
Decide how you will drink it before you brew. With sweetened condensed milk in the glass, over ice, or black. None is the correct one. It matters now because a brew meant for condensed milk or ice is made stronger than one meant to be drunk black.
Add the coffee, level it and rest the press on it. Use the amounts in the section above for a small phin. Do not pack it. A gravity press is dropped in; a screw-down press is turned until it just meets the coffee.
Wet the grounds and wait, then fill and cover. A splash of hot water first, about half a minute for the coffee to swell, then fill the chamber and put the lid on.
Watch the drip, taste, and change one thing. Note whether it falls as drops or a stream and when the chamber empties. Taste it the way you mean to drink it. Then change one thing next time.
What each part of a phin is for
The plate
A perforated saucer that sits on the glass and carries the chamber. In some phins it is one piece with the chamber. Its holes are the first of two sets the coffee passes.
The chamber
Holds the coffee and then the water. Its own base is perforated. Its size sets how much coffee and water one brew can take, which is why a phin makes one size of drink.
The press
A perforated disc that sits on top of the grounds. It stops them floating, holds the bed together, and spreads the water as it goes in. How firmly it sits is one of the few things you adjust.A gravity press is set by its own weight. A screw-down press can be tightened, and is the easier one to over-tighten.
The lid
Keeps heat in during a brew that takes several minutes. Turned over, it is a saucer for the dripping phin when you lift it off.
The glass or cup
Not part of the phin, but part of the method. What is in it before the coffee arrives, whether condensed milk, ice or nothing, decides how strong the brew needs to be.
Why your phin does not behave like the one in the recipe
CoffeeHQ reasoning
A recipe written for one phin is a starting point for another. The holes are drilled or punched to no common pattern, so one base lets water through more freely than the next. A screw-down press and a gravity press hold the bed differently. Sizes run from a single small glass to several servings. And the metal varies.
The practical consequence is that the drip, not the grind setting, is what to compare. If a recipe says it should take a few minutes and yours runs through in one, the phins differ and the grind or the press needs to move. Copying the grind from somebody else's phin tells you little.
It also means consistency comes from your own routine with your own phin: the same amount, levelled the same way, the press seated the same way, wetted first. Change one of those and the drip changes.
With condensed milk, over ice, or black
Common practice
The phin is best known for coffee dripped onto sweetened condensed milk and stirred, hot or poured over ice. The page above gives the reason the two came together. It is also drunk black, hot or iced, and with fresh milk. These are different drinks made with the same filter, and none is the proper one.
What changes between them is how strong the brew has to be. Ice melts into the glass and condensed milk is sweet and heavy, so a brew for either is made stronger than one meant to be drunk black. If you move from one to another, expect to move the amount of coffee, and judge the result as it is served.
What changes what in a phin
Each line is a tendency and the mechanism behind it, not a promise about taste. The last part of each says what else the result depends on.
Grindfiner or coarser
Finer slows the drip and makes a stronger, heavier brew. Coarser lets the water through sooner and thinner.
But it also depends on: The holes. A grind fine enough to slow one phin may fall through, or block, another.
Amount of coffeemore or less in the chamber
More coffee for the same water is a stronger brew and a deeper bed, which drips more slowly.
But it also depends on: The size of the chamber, which sets a limit on both.
The pressresting lightly, or seated firmly
A firmer press compresses the bed and slows the drip. A loose one lets the grounds lift and the water run through.
But it also depends on: The kind of press. Wet coffee swells under it, so a press that was only snug when dry can close the bed once water goes in.
Wetting firsta splash and a wait, or filled in one go
Wetted grounds swell and close the gaps, so the main pour drips steadily. Filled dry, the first water tends to run straight through.
But it also depends on: How fresh and how dark the coffee is.
Waterhotter or cooler, more or less
Hotter water generally takes more from the coffee. More water through the same coffee makes a longer, weaker drink and not a second serving.
But it also depends on: Heat lost over a long drip. A small metal filter cools quickly unless it and the glass were warmed.
What it is served withcondensed milk, ice, fresh milk or nothing
Sweetness and fat soften bitterness; ice dilutes. The same brew is a different drink in each case.
But it also depends on: Taste and habit. This is a choice, not a correction.
The coffeedark-roasted robusta, or something lighter
Dark robusta gives the heavy, bitter cup the method is known for. A lighter roast or an arabica blend makes a different drink.
But it also depends on: What you want it to be.
When a phin goes wrong
For each thing you might notice: what to consider, since there is rarely one cause, and the first thing to try. One change, then brew again.
It does not drip at all
Consider
A screw-down press tightened too far
A grind fine enough to block the holes
Holes blocked with old coffee from the last brew
The plate sealed against a wet rim, so air cannot leave the glass
Try first: Lift or loosen the press slightly. If the drip starts, the press was the cause. If not, lift the phin a little off the glass: if it starts then, it was sealed.
It is simply a slow brewer: several minutes is ordinary
Try first: Compare it with your own usual drip before changing anything. If it is much slower, seat the press more lightly, and only then grind coarser.
It gushes through
Consider
A coarse grind
The grounds were not wetted first
A press sitting loose or floating
Too little coffee in the chamber
Try first: Wet the grounds, wait, then fill. If it still runs as a stream, grind finer by a clear step.
Ice or milk diluting a brew that was not made strong enough for it
Try first: Taste the coffee before ice or milk goes in. If it is thin then, use more coffee for the same water. If it is only thin once iced, brew it stronger or use less ice.
The drink is bitter and weak at once
Consider
The water ran through quickly, so little was dissolved and what you taste is the roast
A dark-roasted robusta brewed short of its usual strength
Ice or milk that thinned it and left the bitterness
Try first: Leave the amount of coffee where it is and read the drip. If it was quick, grind a small step finer. Adding coffee would raise the bitterness and taking it away would thin the glass.
Try first: Let the glass stand for a minute and leave the last sip. A little sediment is normal for a metal filter; grit all through it means the grind is too fine for these holes.
Whole grounds get into the glass
Consider
Grounds on the rim of the chamber or under the plate
A press that does not cover the bed, so grounds float up and over
A two-piece phin whose chamber is not sitting on its plate
Try first: Wipe the rim, seat the chamber on the plate, and check the press sits flat on the coffee before any water goes in.
It is different every time
Consider
The amount of coffee is judged by eye
The press is seated differently each time
Sometimes wetted first and sometimes not
A wet chamber, so the grounds clump
Try first: Fix three things and repeat them: the same weighed amount, the press seated the same way, and the grounds always wetted first. Then compare the drip.
Change one thing, observe, learn
Each of these changes one thing and holds the rest. Brew the two side by side where you can, and write down what you notice before deciding which you prefer.
Wetted first against filled in one go
Change
Brew one glass with a splash and a wait, and one filled straight away.
Keep the same
The coffee, the amount, the grind and how the press sits.
What to notice
How the first drops fall and how long each takes, then how the two taste.
The press resting against the press seated
Change
Rest the press on the coffee for one brew and seat it a little more firmly for the next.
Keep the same
The coffee, the amount, the grind and the water.
What to notice
How much the drip slows, and what that does to the strength.
One brew, three ways
Change
Divide one brew: a spoonful black, some over ice, some with condensed milk.
Keep the same
It is one brew, so nothing else changes.
What to notice
How differently the same coffee reads in each. It shows why the brew is judged as it is served.
What to avoid with a phin
Tightening a screw-down press hard. Wet coffee swells under it and the drip stops. Turn it until it meets the coffee and no further.Common practice
Lifting a hot phin by its chamber. It is thin metal full of near-boiling water. Lift it by the rim of the plate or with a cloth, and set it on its upturned lid.CoffeeHQ reasoning
Standing it on a glass that is cold, thin or narrow at the rim. The glass takes hot coffee and, for the iced drink, is then filled with ice.CoffeeHQ reasoning
Judging it against filter coffee. A phin brew is meant to be strong, heavy and a little cloudy. Those are the method, not faults in it.CoffeeHQ reasoning
Changing the grind, the amount and the press together. One change, then watch the drip.CoffeeHQ reasoning
Looking after it
Every time
Knock out the grounds, take the pieces apart and rinse them. Hold the base and the press to the light: a blocked hole slows the next brew.Common practice
Dry it before putting it away or using it again. A wet chamber makes the grounds clump and the drip uneven.Common practice
From time to time
Wash it with washing-up liquid when coffee oil builds up, and clear any blocked hole with a soft brush. Stainless steel and aluminium are cared for differently, and a phin's own leaflet, if it has one, says how.Common practice
Parts that wear
The press and its thread
A screw-down press whose thread has worn no longer holds its setting. A press that has been bent no longer sits flat, and grounds get past it.CoffeeHQ reasoning
The perforated base
Holes that will not clear, or a base that has been dented, change how the phin drips. There is nothing to replace: a damaged phin is replaced whole.CoffeeHQ reasoning
What else changes how it is used
Only the things that change the brewing. None of this is a list of things to buy.
A clear, sturdy glass
Lets you watch the drip, which is the reading a phin gives, and stands up to hot coffee followed by ice.
A scale, at least at first
The amount of coffee is the main control of strength, and a spoonful of fine dark coffee varies a good deal.
A second phin
For two people. One phin makes one drink, and more water through the same coffee is a weaker drink, not a second one.
From the first brew to knowing it well
Get it to drip. Drops, not a stream and not a stop. The press and wetting first get you most of the way.
Make it the same twice. The same amount, the same press, wetted first. Then the drip becomes something you can compare.
Set the strength for how you drink it. Stronger for ice and condensed milk, less so for black. Judge it in the glass you serve it in.
Then the grind. A small step at a time, for a drip that is neither rushed nor stalled in your phin.
Then the coffee. A different roast or blend changes the drink more than anything done to the filter.
Let the drip tell you what to change. Too fast: grind finer. Too slow: rest the press more lightly, or loosen a screw-down press, before grinding coarser. If the drip time is about right and the taste is not, change the amount of coffee.
Each step links to its own page; this is the order they belong in.
I have coffee and a brewer
You own something to brew with and want a good cup from it.
Find your brewer's page, start from its recipe, and change one thing at a time. The later steps are for when the cup is not right, and for finding out why a change worked.
1Find your brewerWhat it does to the coffee, and a starting recipe labelled as a starting point.
2Work out the amountsCoffee and water for the cup you are making; the recipe scaler follows from it.
3If the cup is not rightChoose the brewer, tick what you noticed: the quickest check, and one change.
4One change per brewThe same loop written out for filter coffee, from the first brew to a recipe you keep.
5Why the change worksStrength and extraction as two numbers, and what a taste can and cannot tell you.
6Test it yourselfHow to compare two cups so the difference is the thing you changed.