Guides
Field notes on Vietnamese specialty coffee
Varieties, processes, regions, and the people behind the cup. New entries land as we write them.
Why Vietnamese Liberica Tastes Like Jackfruit (Cà Phê Mít Explained)
The Vietnamese name for Liberica is jackfruit coffee. It turns out to be a chemical description, not a metaphor — the two share an unusually specific set of ester compounds.
Read →
Why Most Vietnamese Coffee Isn't Sold as Specialty (Yet)
The beans were never the problem. The obstacle is a supply chain built to erase traceability at the first step, and a grading system that pays nothing for flavour.
Read →
Why Vietnam Grows So Much Coffee (And Almost None of It Is Specialty)
Vietnam went from negligible producer to the world's second largest in about fifteen years. The policy decisions that made that happen also built an industry optimised for volume, not quality — and that is still the defining tension.
Read →
Why Durian-Fermented Coffee Tastes Like Custard
Durian is famous for smelling like a gas leak. Ferment coffee with it and you get custard, honey and caramel instead. The ester chemistry that explains the swap.
Read →
What Is Anaerobic Fermentation in Coffee?
Sealed tanks, no oxygen, and a deliberately narrowed microbial population. What actually happens inside the tank, why it changes the cup, and how to tell good anaerobic processing from a fermentation defect.
Read →
Vietnamese Robusta in Espresso: Yes, Actually
Italian espresso has always contained Robusta. Vietnamese specialty Robusta is a better version of what those blends were reaching for — here is how to dial it in.
Read →
The Vietnamese Coffee Regions Atlas
Đắk Lắk, Gia Lai, Cầu Đất, Lâm Đồng and Quảng Trị — five growing regions, five different cups. What each one's soil, altitude and climate actually put in the glass.
Read →
A Vietnamese Coffee Glossary
Phin, cà phê mít, sữa đá, bạc xỉu, cà phê trứng and the rest — the words you need to order confidently and read a Vietnamese menu properly.
Read →
Robusta, Arabica, Liberica: A Complete Comparison
Three commercial coffee species, side by side — genetics, caffeine, acidity, body, growing conditions and what each one actually tastes like. Vietnam is one of the few places you can drink all three.
Read →
Roast Level and Freshness for Vietnamese Beans
Why Robusta takes a darker roast than Arabica, what a roast date actually tells you, and the degassing window that decides whether your first cup is any good.
Read →
Reading SCA Cupping Scores: What 84.62 Actually Means
The 100-point scale is really a 50-point scale with ten categories and a licensed grader. What each attribute measures, why the decimals exist, and how the Fine Robusta protocol differs.
Read →
Phin Filter Brewing: The Canonical Guide
Four parts, four minutes, and three mistakes that account for nearly every bad phin. The complete method, the ratios, and how to fix a phin that floods or chokes.
Read →
Liberica for Pour-Over: A Contrarian Guide
Everything about Liberica says immersion — heavy body, low acidity, syrupy texture. Pour it through paper instead and something more interesting happens.
Read →
Liberica: The Forgotten Third Coffee Species
It was supposed to save the coffee industry in the 1890s. Instead it became a rounding error. The rise, fall and quiet survival of Coffea liberica.
Read →
How to Brew Vietnamese Specialty Coffee
Robusta, Arabica and Liberica each want something different from you. Ratios, grind, temperature and method for all three, plus the phin — and how to decide which to reach for.
Read →
Honey Process Explained: Washed vs Natural vs Honey
There is no honey in honey-processed coffee. There is a decision about how much sticky mucilage to leave on the bean while it dries — and that decision changes almost everything.
Read →
A History of Coffee in Vietnam, 1857 to Today
French missionaries planted the first trees in 1857. Everything since — the plantations, the war, collectivisation, Đổi Mới, and the specialty turn — has been an argument about who the coffee is for.
Read →
A Cupping Protocol for At-Home Tasters
No equipment beyond bowls, a spoon and a kettle. The professional protocol, adapted for a kitchen table, and what it teaches that ordinary drinking cannot.
Read →
A Complete Guide to Vietnamese Specialty Coffee
Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer and one of its least understood specialty origins. This is the whole picture — species, regions, processing, and how to taste what makes it distinct.
Read →
Coffee in Quảng Trị: From Battlefield to Specialty Crop
The province that absorbed the worst of the war is now growing Vietnam's rarest coffee. What the coastal terroir does to Liberica, and why the trees are forty years old.
Read →
Co-Ferments: When Coffee Meets Fruit
Peach, pineapple, durian and jackfruit fermented alongside coffee cherries. What co-fermentation actually is, why it is not flavouring, and the honest argument about whether it should exist.
Read →
Cà Phê Sữa Đá: The Science of Butter-Roasted Robusta
Butter in the roaster sounds like adulteration until you understand what it does. The chemistry behind Vietnam's most distinctive roasting technique, and why it exists at all.
Read →
Cà Phê Sữa Đá at Home: Condensed Milk Ratios That Work
The national drink is four ingredients and one piece of technique. The ratios that actually work, the order of operations, and why your version comes out watery.
Read →
Brewing Fermented Coffees: Dialling In Flavour
Anaerobic and co-fermented coffees break the usual brewing advice. Cooler water, coarser grind, shorter contact — why the standard parameters push them into solvent territory.
Read →
Liberica: Vietnam's Forgotten Specialty Coffee
Liberica coffee is the world's rarest commercial species — and Vietnam is one of the last places it still thrives. Discover its jackfruit aroma, bold flavor, and why Coffea liberica deserves a place in your cup.
Read →
Vietnamese Arabica: The Highland Coffees Rewriting the Narrative
Vietnamese arabica from the Lâm Đồng highlands — Cầu Đất, Da Lat, Nam Ban — is producing some of the most distinctive specialty coffee in Southeast Asia. Here is what makes it different, and why it matters.
Read →
Robusta in Vietnamese Specialty Coffee
Why Vietnamese Robusta deserves serious attention.
Read →