Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Step 4 Assemble the Pot

Screw the top filter element down into the pot. If you can't get the threads to engage, you may have put in a tiny bit too much coffee. This is where you choose how strong your coffee is. Tighter = slower but stronger brew, looser = faster but weaker brew. Personally, I like my coffee to come out so black that light itself cannot escape its surface. I crank it down fairly tight, not so hard that I have to use tools or get a blister, but a good squeeze. If in doubt, make it a little on the tight side. You can always loosen it (using the handle of your spoon as a screwdriver) during the brew if you want to speed things up a bit, but you'll get an unsatisfying brew if its not tight enough and it just drains right through. You want this coffee to be stronger than usual coming out of the pot because you are diluting it with the condensed milk and the ice that you'll be adding. Besides, this is no weak-ass office coffee we are making, this is the real deal.