The long-awaited summer in Vietnam has arrived. The temperature continues rising up between 25-30°C (77 to 86 °F). Staying hydrated is the most essential factor to keep going in this sweltering heat and maintaining good health. Let us refresh and replenish your bodies with some of the greatest summer beverages to battle this scorching heat. Here are some drinks you should seek out during your visit to Vietnam.

TEA

For three thousand years, tea has been an important drink and is a highly distinctive beverage in Vietnamese culture. Traditional Vietnamese tea drinking way is considered a regular habit of the elderly in families without complicated rituals as found in other nations. People can begin their day with a cup of tea to revive their alertness while others enjoy drinking tea after meals to refresh the taste.

Tradition is out and modern is in, yet tea has been a part of Vietnamese society for generations and is an important component of the country’s history and economics. People in cities typically drink tea from tiny street vendors – which can be found everywhere, particularly in front of the gates of railway stations, bus terminals, schools, office buildings, sidewalks, and even peaceful lanes. For anyone eagers in Vietnamese tea, we’d love to recommend traditional green tea or other herbal teas. People can spend hours drinking hot or iced tea and discussing the most recent events while drinking tea. Restaurants and cafés frequently provide iced green tea for free, but if you must pay, it is seldom more than 5,000 VND. Except for the additional menu items that must be ordered explicitly, such as lotus or herbal tea, which are costlier.

Lime tea has become a popular new fad in Vietnamese street culture among youngsters. To savor lime tea with sunflower seeds, dried shredded chicken with lime leaves, and beef jerky… with friends after school and working hours is the most ecstatic feeling ever.

COFFEE

Vietnamese coffee is one of the things that tourists coming to Vietnam must experience. It’s no surprise that the first word that springs to mind when you drink a cup of Vietnamese coffee is “robust,” since it is made with unique dark-roasted Robusta beans in a very slowly drip filter. The two most popular styles to drink local coffee are “Cà phê sữa đá” (iced coffee with condensed milk), the coffee’s powerful and intense flavor is euphorically balanced off by the sweet, rich flavor of the condensed milk and the extremely rich and bitter “Cà phê đá” (iced black coffee) only for the one who likes challenges. Yet did you know that there are so many kinds of Vietnamese coffee combinations that no one ever thinks of but that work shockingly well?

Egg coffee was born in the late 1940s when condensed milk was not as abundant as today, so its creator found another great ingredient to replace expensive milk and neutral the bitterness of coffee, even making coffee more smooth and creamy, which is egg yolks. Coconut coffee is a lip-smacking summertime delight made with strong, powerful iced black coffee mixed with coconut cream, condensed milk, and coconut copra. Yogurt coffee is available on menus across Hanoi, the sourness of the fresh homemade yogurt, the bitterness of the coffee beans, and the sweetness of the condensed milk create a mouthwatering beverage.

You can’t go along any street in the town without seeing someone drinking coffee. Coffee time gives people a chance to relax, calm their chaotic minds, and observe the world go by, whether from a little chair at a street-side vendor or from the window of a pretty cafe shop.

SWEET PORRIDGE (CHÈ)

It is said that sweet porridge originated in Vietnam’s central area, although they are now widely appeared throughout the nation and prepared in diverse varieties. Vietnamese sweet porridge includes some of the typical ingredients: mung beans, black beans, corn, taro, tapioca, jelly, and more! In the vendor’s cart, you will find these ingredients separately put in large bowls displayed in the cart. When you order your sweet porridge, simply point to the ingredients you want to put in. Depending on the kind of sweet porridge, they can be served either hot or with grinding ice.
Besides some traditional sweet porridge dishes like Black bean sweet porridge, grapefruit sweet porridge, Thai sweet porridge, mixed sweet porridge… Vietnamese enjoy silky tofu pudding very much. In Northern Vietnam, it is usually served with jasmine flavored sugar water while in the Southern people tend to use ginger flavor instead.

FRUIT JUICE AND SMOOTHIE

Vietnam has a tropical climate with many kinds of tropical fruits. Summertime is heaven fruity time in the country. At this time of the year, you’ll also get a taste of Vietnamese creativity and the country’s great bounty: beverages made of luscious tropical fruit and fresh herbs.

For generations, coconut water has been a favorite drink in Vietnam but you won’t find bottled coconut water here. It’s sipped directly from the coconut, and it’s fresher, grassier, sweeter, and more full-flavored than anything you’ll get in a bottle. You will also find funny-looking machines in street vendors selling sugar cane juice, for your information, it is not a ship’s wheel but used to squeeze the juice. This juice is, then, combined with kumquat juice which gives it a sharply sweet, and sour flavor that is incredibly refreshing and flavor stimulating.

Smoothies are abundant in Vietnam, cool smoothies with fresh dragon-fruit, custard apple, avocado, soursop, and jackfruit blended with ice and condensed milk or yogurt, are sold almost everywhere on the street in the simplest mobile carts.

BEER

Vietnamese beer culture is influenced by traditional European styles while also developing its own taste of beer known as Bia hơi – draft beer. Draft beer is created fresh every day, unlike canned or bottled beer, and has no additions or preservatives. Draft beer is always in its purest form, foamy and light, with a crisp flavor reminiscent of rice. Draft beer will become undrinkable after around 20 hours since it will get flat and taste terrible.

Every city in Vietnam appears to have its own brand of beer. For example, Saigon Beer is produced in Ho Chi Minh City, Huda or Hue Beer is produced in Hue, Hanoi Beer is produced in Hanoi, and so on. A Vietnamese drinking session is accompanied by a variety of local snacks: peanuts, Vietnamese rice crackers, fried tofu, French fries, cheese sticks; or even delicious dishes like a feast, such as fried frog meat, fried salted chicken feet, fermented raw sausage, coconut snails sautéed with butter, clams steamed with lemongrass, grilled squid,… and they all go well with beer.
Beer is available everywhere in Vietnam from rural to urban and from luxurious restaurants to street vendors. A trip to Hanoi isn’t complete unless you go to Draft beer Corner (near the intersection of Lương Ngọc Quyến, Tạ Hiện, and Đinh Liệt streets) at night and enjoy beer. Many visitors to Vietnam considered that sipping bia hơi on Hanoi’s streets is as symbolic as eating pad Thai in Bangkok. In Vietnam, during the “beer meeting” with locals, you will hear and say that magic spell, which makes your beer a lot better: “Mot – Hai – Ba – Dô!” (1 – 2 – 3 – Cheers!)

Conclusion:

The beverage culture of Vietnam has existed since former periods through farming. From early morning until late afternoon, they have to go to the paddy fields to cultivate, so it requires some refreshments and water replenishing. Over time, beverages have been modified to suit the culture and era, but still retain the traditional and rustic features in each drink which makes Vietnam such a feast of experiences, culture, views, and flavors.