In recent years, many Vietnamese family kitchens have seen the emergence of items previously only found in cafes: hand grinders, digital scales with decimal points of 0.1 grams, gooseneck kettles, and insulated coffee makers. The habit of drinking coffee at home has evolved from a makeshift practice during lockdowns into a serious hobby. This article analyzes the reasons behind this, compares the actual costs with buying coffee elsewhere, and outlines three levels of investment in equipment to help you know where to stop.
1. Coffee drinking at home booms after lockdown period.
The travel restrictions of 2020 and 2021 forced millions of people to brew their own coffee at home. Surprisingly, when cafes reopened, many maintained their new habit. The reason is that in those few months they had learned a skill, purchased the necessary equipment, and most importantly, discovered they had control over their cup of coffee. They decided on the type of beans, roast level, sugar content, strength, and timing of their drink, regardless of opening hours or travel distance. At the same time, Vietnamese-language brewing instructions exploded on social media, turning once highly technical concepts like extraction ratio, grind size, and water temperature into common knowledge. As a result, the habit of drinking coffee at home is no longer a temporary alternative but has become a sustainable, parallel choice alongside going to a cafe.
2. Cost of Drinking Coffee at Home Compared to Buying It Outside
This is the most surprising figure when calculated on paper. A standard coffee filter uses about 20-25 grams of powder, meaning one kilogram of coffee yields about 40-50 cups. With the common price of roasted and ground coffee on the market ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 VND per kilogram, the cost of ingredients is around 4,000 to 10,000 VND per cup, plus a few thousand VND if you use condensed milk. Meanwhile, market surveys in the first half of 2026 showed that the group spending between 36,000 and 70,000 VND per visit at a coffee shop accounted for about 61.8% of consumers. The difference is therefore usually four to seven times. If you drink two cups a day, the savings over a year would be enough to buy a complete set of good equipment. Of course, this calculation ignores the value of the space and service that a coffee shop provides – something that brewing at home cannot replace.
3. Level One: Traditional Filter and Kettle
This is the most reasonable and cheapest starting point. You only need an aluminum or stainless steel coffee filter, a kettle, and pre-ground coffee of the right medium-coarse size. The total cost is usually only a few hundred thousand dong. Despite its simplicity, this level still has its own techniques worth learning: add 20–25 grams of coffee grounds, spread them evenly, tighten the lid comfortably (not too tightly), pour in about 20–30 ml of water and let it steep for 30 seconds before filling completely, and maintain the water temperature around 92–96°C. The ideal brewing time is 4–7 minutes; faster means the grind is too coarse or the tamping is too loose, slower means the opposite. By adjusting just the grind size and lid tightness, you can significantly improve the quality of your coffee without buying anything else. Many people stop here and are completely satisfied.
4. Level Two: Hand Grinder and Electronic Scale
The biggest leap in quality usually happens at this level, and it’s much cheaper than many people think. The core components include a cone-blade or flat-blade steel grinder and an electronic scale with 0.1-gram divisions and a stopwatch. The total cost typically ranges from a few hundred thousand to a few million Vietnamese dong, depending on the quality of the blades. At this level, you also start buying whole beans instead of pre-ground coffee, and you can add a pour-over system like a V60 or an Aeropress to expand your brewing possibilities. The real value lies not in the equipment but in the mindset: you shift from brewing by feel to brewing based on repeatable parameters. Once you’ve recorded the amount of powder, the amount of water, the grind size, and the brewing time, each failed attempt becomes data to be corrected, rather than a matter of luck.
5. Level Three: Home Espresso Machines
This is a serious investment and should only be considered if you truly enjoy hot milk drinks like lattes, cappuccinos, or flat whites. A standard espresso shot requires approximately 18–20 grams of grounds in the filter basket, yielding 36–40 ml of water in 25–30 seconds, at a pressure of around 9 bar and a water temperature of 92–94°C. It’s important to know before spending the money: the machine is only half the system. Espresso requires a very fine and extremely consistent grind, so a weak grinder will render an expensive machine useless, with the water flow being too fast or too slow. The home espresso machine market in Vietnam has expanded significantly with various segments, from basic semi-automatic machines to those with temperature and pressure control. If your budget is limited, prioritize the grinder first before upgrading the machine later.
6. Why is the Grinder More Important Than the Coffee Machine?
The reasons lie in two factors: freshness and uniformity. Regarding freshness, ground coffee has a much larger surface area exposed to air than whole beans, so the aroma evaporates quickly and oxidation occurs within a few days instead of weeks. Grinding right before brewing therefore improves the aroma more noticeably than any other equipment upgrade. Regarding uniformity, blade-type grinders only chop the beans into small pieces, creating a mixture of large pieces and fine dust. The large pieces are under-extracted, resulting in a harsh, sour, and salty taste; the fine dust is over-extracted, resulting in a bitter, astringent taste; and the coffee has both drawbacks simultaneously. Conical or flat-blade grinders grind the beans through gaps with fixed spacing, resulting in a much narrower particle size distribution. This is why experienced users always recommend buying a good grinder first.
7. Electronic Scales and the Principle of Standard Ratio
Scales are the cheapest but second most important tool after the grinder, simply because they turn brewing into a measurement. The Specialty Coffee Association uses a familiar reference point of about 55 grams of coffee per liter of water, equivalent to a ratio of 1:15 to 1:18 for filter methods. With Vietnamese filter coffee, the ratio is much stronger, usually around 1:2 to 1:3, resulting in a very strong brew. Besides the ratio, two other important technical indicators are the concentration of dissolved solids in the cup, usually between 1.15–1.35% for filter coffee, and a reasonable extraction efficiency of around 18–22%. You don’t need measuring equipment to use these numbers; just understand the principle: under-extraction results in a harsh, sour, and salty taste, while over-extraction results in a bitter, dry, and astringent taste. Knowing what type of cup is faulty will help you adjust the grind size accordingly.
8. Water and Temperature – Two Often Overlooked Variables
A cup of brewed coffee is over 98% water, so water quality directly affects the result. Water that is too pure and lacks minerals will produce a weak, thin, and shallow cup because minerals are involved in dissolving flavor compounds. Water that is too hard, on the other hand, will make the flavor bland and cause scale buildup that damages brewing equipment. A commonly cited reference point is total dissolved solids around 150 mg per liter with a near-neutral pH. In practice, using water filtered through a home water filter usually yields better results than both tap water and bottled purified water. Regarding temperature, around 90–96°C is a safe range for most brewing methods; pouring boiling water directly onto dark roasted coffee powder can easily create a burnt taste. A simple trick is to boil the water and then wait about 30–45 seconds before pouring.
9. Community for Sharing Recipes and Experiences
What made this trend spread so quickly was that it wasn’t happening in isolation. Social media groups with tens of thousands of members became places where newcomers could post photos of their coffee, describe the parameters used, and receive specific advice within minutes. The shared content was highly practical: recipes for each type of bean, how to fix a sour cup, grinder reviews by price range, tips for making cold brew using a glass pitcher readily available in the kitchen. Alongside this were short workshops organized by the roasters themselves, often including small sample beans of various types for participants to compare. The impact of this ecosystem was clear: the knowledge barrier, the biggest obstacle for newcomers, almost disappeared. You didn’t need to learn from scratch; you just repeated the recipes of those who came before you, then gradually adjusted them to your own taste.
10. Drinking Coffee at Home Reshapes the Retail Market
This shift is changing how beans and powders are sold. Most noticeably, packaging is changing: alongside the one-kilogram bags for cafes, 250-gram and 500-gram packages for home use are becoming popular, often featuring a one-way valve to release air without allowing it to enter. Secondly, label information is becoming denser, including roasting dates, roast levels, recommended grind sizes, and suggested water-to-powder ratios, as home brewers need instructions, not just the product itself. Thirdly, the model of roasting to order and delivering within a few days is emerging, which is only feasible with a steady stream of individual customers. If you want to get started, the most economical approach is to buy a decent hand grinder and scale first, keep your existing coffee filter, and order 250-gram packages of whole beans with a roast date within four weeks. Those three small changes often make a big difference.