EGN NEWS DESK
Other than Brazil, no nation produces extra coffee than Vietnam. Introduced by French colonists within the Nineteenth century, the nation’s coffee crop is now a $3 billion enterprise and accounts for almost 15 % of the worldwide market, making Vietnam the java large of Southeast Asia.
Quality, nonetheless, has solely not too long ago begun to meet up with amount, primarily as a result of farmers have begun augmenting Vietnam’s longtime cultivation of cheaper, easy-to-grow robusta beans with a connoisseur’s favourite, arabica.
A significant beneficiary has been the cafe scene within the nation’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City (a.okay.a. Saigon). Thanks to direct crop-to-shop provides, the retail enterprise of coffee is booming as growing numbers of indie roasteries and specialty coffeehouses sprout up across the metropolis’s French colonial opera home, amid the megamalls and boutiques of trendy Dong Khoi Boulevard, and within the shadows of the high-rise towers in District 2.
From semi-hidden bohemian hangouts corresponding to RedDoor to trendy chains like Laviet — which has its personal coffee farm close to Dalat, within the nation’s central highlands — the town has a restaurant for almost each coffee acolyte.
Given the distinctive bitterness and caffeine wallop of most robusta beans, it’s little marvel that the Vietnamese have historically softened their coffee with a thick dollop of sweetened condensed milk, creating an virtually milkshake-like concoction.
For your initiation into this nationwide traditional, head to this humble hole-in-the-wall, the oldest current cafe on the town, in a low-lying, off-the-radar pocket of District 3 not removed from Nguyen Thien Thuat Street, identified for its musical instrument retailers. Here, the stoic Madame Suong and her two sisters carry out the ritual that their household has been training for the reason that Nineteen Thirties.
As sentimental Vietnamese pop songs echo off the sky-blue partitions, tiles and peeling ceiling, the ladies work beneath a single bulb within the small kitchen, filling hand-held material nets with a mixture of robusta, arabica and culi (additionally known as peaberry) grounds and passing them via boiling pots of water heated by a charcoal hearth in a repurposed American oil drum. After a second cross via the water — saved a number of days beforehand in huge clay pots to permit impurities to sink to the underside — the potent brew is then poured into highball glasses and blended with condensed milk.
If the end result (25,000 Vietnamese dong, or about $1) nonetheless isn’t sufficiently creamy in your style, ask for a particular embellishment: a dab of French butter.
Lacaph: Coffee school
Even sweeter concoctions await inside Lacaph, a cultured new coffeehouse in District 1, simply off Rach Ben Nghe, the slim city canal that snakes via the town. Decorated with darkish wooden paneling and monitor lighting, the cafe serves lemonade (80,000 dong) mixed with coffee-blossom honey and a dose of coffee brewed in a standard Vietnamese phin — a chrome steel cup with an inner steel filter — whereas the home coconut coffee (80,000 dong) blends chilly brew, coconut milk, coconut syrup and coconut ice cream. Less sugary choices abound, together with espressos, lattes and cascaras (60,000 dong), a tea-like beverage comprised of the husks of coffee crops and skins of coffee berries.
But the marquee attraction is their exhibition area. Adorned with posters, maps, machines and even a classic bike — a well-liked transportation methodology amongst Vietnamese growers — this facet room gives an indoctrination into the nation’s coffee historical past, areas, bean varieties, cultivation strategies and manufacturing methods.
To go deeper, peruse the “Coffee 101” chapter within the show copy of “The Vietnamese Coffee Book,” a shiny tome printed in 2022 with a foreword by Lacaph’s founder, Timen R.T. Swijtink. Or take Lacaph’s “Vietnamese Coffee & Culture” class, considered one of a number of coffee-themed experiences for newbies (450,000 to 650,000 dong).
96B: A seamless training
Still thirsty for coffee information? Head to the Tan Dinh district, well-known for its Nineteenth-century pink church and teeming coated market surrounded by street-food carts. Gray, angular and industrial, this small cafe packs academic ambitions with hands-on workshops (300,000 to 660,000 dong) dedicated to every part from roasting beans to latte artwork. Hardcore fanatics can take the “Sensory Training” sequence, two programs that impart the artwork of tasting coffee like a professional, from understanding acidity to judging sweetness.
But 96B’s mission will not be purely educational. The cafe serves 5 hand-brewed Vietnamese coffees — full with tasting notes and particular person small carafes, like positive wine — in addition to experimental drinks like Solar Cold Brew (85,000 dong), a mixture of chilled coffee, ginger syrup, ginger jam, lemon cordial and rosemary.
Afterward, clients can increase their information by taking house “The Vietnam Coffee Atlas” (599,000 dong), the store’s boxed set of Vietnamese beans. The eight varieties showcase totally different areas and types of coffee.
There is perhaps no higher place to check your tasting expertise than at this huge, loft-like, neo-industrial cafe, simply off bustling Dong Khoi Street. A chalkboard pronounces the numerous native and worldwide beans of the second, and the illustrated menu proposes myriad preparation strategies, from easy espresso to extra concerned pour-over strategies and immersion units.
For a high-tech coffee, select the siphon (135,000 dong), an elaborate contraption of glass bulbs, tubes and knobs. The slow-drip know-how will take a look at your persistence and reward your style buds. The salted coffee (65,000 dong) with condensed milk is a favourite savory-sweet model developed within the former imperial metropolis of Hue.
The Workshop may additionally win the award for the town’s most intensive coffeehouse meals menu, leaping from American-ish breakfasts (lemon-ricotta pancakes with mango, 135,000 dong) to North African-ized dishes (scrambled eggs with harissa sauce, 155,000 dong) to French desserts.
The title of this native coffeehouse chain tells you every part it’s essential to find out about its signature attraction: a frothy, foamy, candy tackle egg coffee (40,000 dong), a Hanoi traditional made with whipped egg yolks, condensed milk, sugar and vanilla flavoring.
The décor on the primary location (119/5 Yersin Street) is old style: bamboo armchairs, floral-print cushions, plaid blankets, wood-paneled televisions, reel-to-reel tape decks and cabinets of dusty used paperbacks. But the all-ages crowd laps up the time-warp environment together with the (egg-heavy) all-day breakfast menu.
Bel: Art and commerce
The sounds of mellow indie rock and fingers tapping pc keys greet you upon coming into this minimalist, gallery-like area, the place cool youngsters and international nomads noodle on laptops whereas baristas work the levers of a state-of-the-art Slayer espresso machine.
Outfitted with uncovered overhead ducts and colourful summary work on the partitions, the cafe serves up espresso drinks (together with a latte made with home pandan syrup, 90,000 dong), attractive juice blends (strive the wonderful jicama-guava-apple-ginger combine, 60,000 dong) and luggage of house-roasted beans to go.
If your caffeinated carousing in Saigon has impressed you to consider creating your personal coffeehouse, simply stroll via the door on the finish of the room. You’ll end up within the workplace of Building Coffee. A accomplice operation run by the “coffee coach” Will Frith, an American of Vietnamese descent, Building Coffee is a roastery and consultancy that advises aspiring cafe homeowners within the commerce of coffee.
Ca Phe Vot: Coffee by no means sleeps
By now you may need a critical caffeine dependency. If so, you’re hardly alone in Saigon and one tiny previous institution is open round the clock to supply everybody’s repair. Known as Ca Phe Vot (“internet coffee”), the small, garage-like area is tucked away at 330/2 Phan Dinh Phung, a slender lane within the Phu Nhuan district, south of the airport.
By day, staff hustle to unload containers of condensed milk whereas Madame Tuyet Pham and Monsieur Con Dang cross nets crammed with robusta grounds via a cauldron of scorching water atop a charcoal range comprised of a repurposed B-52 bombshell. According to Madame Pham, the hearth hasn’t gone out for the reason that range was first lit within the Nineteen Sixties. The store itself goes again to the Fifties.
By night time, they hand over the reins and retire to sleep of their condo over the store. But the road of pedestrians and scooters awaiting takeaway coffee is almost fixed. Fueled by this nonstop demand, the cafe serves greater than 500 cups a day (20,000 dong). Sip it on the go or on a low plastic stool in Ca Phe Vot’s humble white-tiled salon throughout the alley.
Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and join our weekly Travel Dispatch e-newsletter to get skilled tips about touring smarter and inspiration in your subsequent trip. Dreaming up a future getaway or simply armchair touring? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.
