Chè is any traditional Vietnamese sweet beverage, dessert soup or stew, or pudding. Chè includes a wide variety of distinct soups or puddings. Varieties of Chè can be made with mung beans, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, tapioca, jelly, fruit, and coconut cream. Other types are made with ingredients such as salt, aloe vera, seaweed, lotus seed, sesame seed, sugar palm seeds, taro, cassava and pandan leaf extract. Some varieties, such as chè trôi nước, may also include dumplings. Chè are often prepared with one of a number of varieties of beans, tubers, and/or glutinous rice, cooked in water and sweetened with sugar. In southern Vietnam, chè are often garnished with coconut creme.
Chè may be served either hot or cold, and eaten with a bowl and spoon or drunk in a glass. Each variety of chè is designated by a descriptive word or phrase that follows the word chè, such as chè đậu đỏ (literally "red bean chè").
Chè may be made at home, but are also commonly sold in plastic cups at Vietnamese grocery stores.
In northern Vietnam, chè is also the word for the tea plant. Tea is also known as nước chè in the North or more commonly trà in both regions.
The Chinese category of sweet soups called tong sui are very similar to chè.