Part of Vietnamese coffee culture involves preparing a fresh cup of coffee using the slow-brewing traditional filter called a phin.While you can accomplish delicious results with alternative brewing styles such as pour-over and French press, the phin filter gives your Vietnamese coffee its traditional intensity.

Pour-over will give you more control over every step of the preparation process, while the French press is easier to make and demands less attention. With Phin filters, coffee preparation takes longer.

Read on to learn which brewing style is best for preparing genuine Vietnamese coffee.

What’s the Difference Between Pour-Over, French Press, & Phin Filter?

To learn which brewing style is best, you first have to understand how coffee is prepared with each method. While you can achieve a delicious cup of coffee with any of these styles, they are very different from one another.

How to Do the Pour-Over Method

One of the main characteristics of pour-over coffee is that the extraction of coffee flavors and aromas is cleaner. As it requires paper filters, you won’t find coffee grind sediments at the bottom of your cup. Oils emanating from the coffee beans will also remain in the filter.

The first step in preparing pour-over coffee is choosing the right coffee beans. You can use any blend you like. However, traditional Vietnamese coffee is prepared using robusta coffee beans, which have an intense flavor and bitterness that you won’t find in other types.

If you think a robusta is too much for your palate, you can try robusta and arabica blends, such as Sai Gon OG coffee. It’s the perfect combination of bold robusta coffee balanced with lighter arabica beans.

Once you’ve selected the coffee beans, here are the additional elements you need for your coffee preparation.

• Coffee grinder — The optimum grind size for coffee prepared using a pour-over style is as fine as sugar.
• Pour over brewer of your choice — Brewers come in different sizes, shapes, and materials, such as stainless steel, glass with a silicone base, or a combination of both. The two most popular options are the Hario V60 and Chemex.
• Scale — If you’re just getting started with the pour-over brewing technique, it’s recommended that you use a scale to measure the amount of coffee you’ll use per cup. The recommended ratio is 1 gram of coffee per every 16.7 grams of water.
• Paper filter — The pour-over style requires paper filters, making the result genuinely unique.

Here's how to make a delicious cup of coffee in pour-over brewing style.

1. Grind your coffee beans until their structure resembles sea salt or sugar.
2. Place the dripper with the paper filter on top of your cup.
3. Pour the coffee into the paper filter.
4. Start pouring water slowly over the coffee until all the grounds are saturated. 

Pros of Pour-Over Style

• You won’t find coffee grind sediments or oils that emanate from the coffee in your cup.
• This brewing method gives you total control over every factor of the preparation process, including water temperature, amount of water and coffee, and pouring speed.
• You can control the strength and taste of the coffee to your preference. Slowly saturating the coffee ground creates a more complete flavor profile.
• It’s an effective method if you want to prepare only one cup of coffee.

Cons of Pour-Over Style

• It takes more time to prepare a cup of coffee compared to other methods.

How to Use a French Press

The pour-over vs. French press debate is an ongoing battle between coffee experts. The first thing you need to know about French press brewing is that the coffee preparation process is entirely different.

Instead of using drip filters, the French press style uses immersion and saturation to extract the best flavors and aromas from the coffee ground. As the coffee grounds are in direct contact with the water, you’ll get a robust flavor. Although “coarse” is the perfect grind size for this brewing style, you may still find little coffee sediments at the bottom of your cup.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use a French press to make coffee.

1. Put the coffee grounds into the French press. Remember not to grind the beans too much.
2. Pour boiling water into the carafe.
3. Wait a few minutes for your coffee to bloom.
4. Plunge the filter all the way down to “press” the coffee grounds through the water.

An aromatic fresh coffee will be ready to pour a few minutes later.

Pros of Using a Phin Filter

• It produces an intense coffee with a rich aroma.
• The phin filter is easy to set up and use.
• The process requires little attention.

Cons of Using a Phin Filter

• Making a cup of coffee takes more time.
• You can prepare one cup of coffee at a time.

How to Use a Phin Filter

Phin filters are an easy way of brewing coffee and an exceptional alternative to getting the most out of your coffee grounds. The answer to which would win in a phin filter vs. French press battle depends on the time you want to invest in your coffee preparation. But before comparing, let’s review how to make a coffee cup with a phin-style filter.

1. Place the phin over your coffee cup and pour coffee grounds into the chamber. Finely ground coffee is recommended.
2. Add hot water to the chamber. This brewing style doesn’t require filters.
3. Place the filter inside the chamber. There is no need to apply pressure, as gravity will push it down.
4. Pour hot water and enjoy watching your freshly made coffee drip into the cup.

Pros of Using a Phin Filter

• It produces an intense coffee with a rich aroma.
• The phin filter is easy to set up and use.
• The process requires little attention.

Cons of Using a Phin Filter

• Making a cup of coffee takes more time.
• You can only prepare one cup of coffee at a time.

FAQs: Coffee Brewing Methods

1. What’s the difference between arabica and robusta coffee beans?

Robusta beans have a bolder and more intense flavor. They also have more caffeine than arabica beans. Compared to robusta beans, arabica has 60% more sugar and fat.

2. Which brewing style is the best?

Compared to the pour-over brewing style, using phin filters requires less attention to detail, but you will still get an incredible cup of coffee. In a phin filter vs. French press comparison, it’s a different story. The main difference is that the French press often releases coffee grounds through the filter while phins produce cleaner cups of coffee.