Finding great coffee in Ho Chi Minh City
Besides Brazil, no country produces more coffee than Vietnam. Introduced by French colonists in the 19th century, the country’s coffee crop now generates $3 billion in sales and accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global market, making Vietnam the java giant of Southeast Asia.
However, quality has only recently begun to catch up to quantity, especially as farmers have begun expanding Vietnam’s ancient cultivation of cheaper, easy-to-grow robust beans to include the connoisseur’s favorite, arabica.
A major beneficiary is the cafe scene in the country’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon). Direct-to-store deliveries are fueling the growth of coffee retailing as more independent roasters and specialty coffeehouses spring up around the city’s French colonial opera house, amid the megamalls and boutiques of fashionable Dong Khoi Boulevard, and in the shadows of the tall towers in District 2.
Given the exceptional bitterness and caffeine punch of most robust beans, it’s no wonder that the Vietnamese have traditionally sweetened their coffee with a thick dollop of sweetened condensed milk, creating an almost milkshake-like brew.
For your introduction to this national classic, head to this unassuming hole in the wall, the oldest surviving café in the city, in a low-lying, off-the-radar area of District 3, not far from Nguyen Thien Thuat Street. known for its musical instrument stores. Here, the stoic Madame Suong and her two sisters perform the ritual their family has practiced since the 1930s.
As sentimental Vietnamese pop songs echo off the sky-blue walls, tiles and peeling ceiling, the women work under one lamp in the small kitchen, filling portable cloth nets with a mix of robusta, arabica and culi (also called peaberry). ground and passed through boiling pots of water, heated by a charcoal fire in a repurposed American oil barrel. After a second pass through the water – stored in large clay pots for a few days beforehand to allow impurities to sink to the bottom – the potent brew is then poured into highball glasses and mixed with condensed milk.
If the result (25,000 VND, or about $1) is still not creamy enough for your taste, ask for a special embellishment: a bit of French butter.
Lacaph: Coffee college
Even sweeter brews await at Lacaph, a stylish new coffeehouse in District 1, just off Rach Ben Nghe, the narrow urban canal that winds through the city. Decorated with dark wood paneling and track lighting, the cafe serves lemonade (80,000 dong) paired with coffee blossom honey and a dose of coffee brewed in a traditional Vietnamese phin – a stainless steel cup with an internal metal filter – while the house coconut coffee (80,000 dong) combines cold brew, coconut milk, coconut syrup and coconut ice cream. Less sweet options abound, including espressos, lattes and cascaras (60,000 dong), a tea-like drink made from the peels of coffee plants and the peels of coffee cherries.
But the big attraction is their exhibition space. Decorated with posters, cards, machines and even a vintage motorcycle – a favorite mode of transport among Vietnamese growers – this side room offers an indoctrination into the country’s coffee history, regions, bean varieties, cultivation methods and production techniques.
If you want to delve deeper, you can read the chapter ‘Coffee 101’ in the display version of ‘The Vietnamese Coffee Book’, a glossy tome published in 2022 with a foreword by Lacaph founder Timen RT Swijtink. Or take Lacaph’s “Vietnamese coffee and culture” class, one of many coffee themed experiences for beginners (450,000 to 650,000 dong).
96B: Advanced training
Still thirsty for coffee knowledge? Head to the Tan Dinh district, famous for its 19th-century pink church and bustling covered market surrounded by street food carts. Gray, angular and industrial, this small cafe has educational ambitions with hands-on workshops (Dong 300,000 to 660,000) devoted to everything from bean roasting to latte art. Hardcore enthusiasts can take the ‘Sensory Training’ series, two courses that teach the art of tasting coffee like a pro, from understanding acidity to assessing sweetness.
But 96B’s mission is not purely academic. The cafe serves five hand-brewed Vietnamese coffees – complete with tasting notes and individual small carafes, like fine wine – as well as experimental drinks such as Solar Cold Brew (85,000 Dong), a blend of chilled coffee, ginger syrup, ginger jam, lemon cordial and rosemary .
Afterwards, customers can expand their knowledge by taking home “The Vietnam Coffee Atlas” (Dong 599,000), the store’s set of Vietnamese beans. The eight variants present different regions and coffee styles.
There’s perhaps no better place to test your tasting skills than in this enormous, loft-like, neo-industrial cafe, just off the bustling Dong Khoi Street. A chalkboard announces the many local and international beans of the moment, and the illustrated menu suggests numerous preparation methods, from simple espresso to more complicated pour-overs and immersion devices.
For a high-tech coffee, choose the siphon (135,000 dong), an extensive set of glass balls, tubes and buttons. The slow-drip technology will test your patience and reward your taste buds. The salted coffee (65,000 dong) with condensed milk is a favorite savory-sweet style, developed in the former imperial city of Hue.
The Workshop could also win the prize for the city’s most extensive coffeehouse food menu, ranging from American-style breakfast (lemon ricotta pancakes with mango, VND135,000) to North African dishes (scrambled eggs with harissa sauce, VND155,000) to French desserts.
The name of this local coffeehouse chain tells you everything you need to know about its signature attraction: a frothy, foamy, sweet take on egg coffee (40,000 dong), a Hanoi classic made with whipped egg yolks, condensed milk, sugar and vanilla flavor.
The decor of the main location (119/5 Yersin Street) is old-fashioned: bamboo armchairs, floral print cushions, plaid blankets, wood-paneled televisions, reel-to-reel tape decks and shelves of dusty, used paperbacks. But audiences of all ages will experience the time-warp atmosphere along with the (egg-heavy) all-day breakfast menu.
Call: Art and commerce
The sounds of soft indie rock and fingers tapping computer keys greet you as you enter this minimalist, gallery-like space, where cool kids and global nomads sit on laptops while baristas operate the levers of a state-of-the-art Slayer espresso machine.
Equipped with exposed air ducts and colorful abstract paintings on the walls, the cafe serves espresso drinks (including a latte made with house pandan syrup, 90,000 dong), tempting juice blends (try the excellent jicama-guava-apple-ginger mix, 60,000 dong). dong) and bags of home-roasted beans to take with you.
If the caffeinated delight in Saigon has inspired you to think about setting up your own coffee shop, just walk through the door at the end of the room. You end up at the office of Build coffee. A partner operation run by the “coffee coach” Will Fritsan American of Vietnamese descent, Building Coffee is a coffee roasting company and consulting firm that advises aspiring cafe owners in the coffee business.
Ca Phe Vot: Coffee never sleeps
You may now have a serious caffeine dependency. If so, you are certainly not alone in Saigon and there is a small old establishment open 24 hours a day to provide a solution for everyone. Known as Ca Phe Vot (“net coffee”), the small, garage-like space is tucked away at 330/2 Phan Dinh Phung, a narrow alley in the Phu Nhuan district, south of the airport.
During the day, workers rush to unload cartons of condensed milk, while Madame Tuyet Pham and Monsieur Con Dang pass nets filled with robusta dik through a kettle of hot water atop a charcoal stove made from a repurposed B-52 bomb. According to Madame Pham, the fire has not gone out since the stove was first lit in the 1960s. The store itself dates back to the 1950s.
At night they hand over the reins and go to sleep in their apartment above the shop. But the line of pedestrians and scooters waiting for takeaway coffee is almost constant. Fueled by this non-stop demand, the café serves more than 500 cups per day (Dong 20,000). Enjoy on the go or on a low plastic stool in Ca Phe Vot’s modest, white-tiled salon across the alley.
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