We just got home from a 10 day vacation in Vietnam, where (despite the terrible reviews on HB and other forums) we had some of the best tasting coffee we ever tried. We did not add milk or sugar, except for trying some of the cane syrup that was offered in little pitchers at a few very nice cafes. The coffee at L'Usine and a few similar places was truly fantastic, and I want to be able to make similar drinks at home - but I couldn't find out exactly what bean(s) they used. From the traditional strong "Vietnamese iced coffee" to ristrettos, the flavors were rich and chocolatey - but the most compelling thing for me was the full, rich coffee taste with no bitterness at all in cup after cup and glass after glass. Even the chains (e.g. Highlands, which we found to be pretty good for a high volume outlet and seemed to me to be using at least a fair proportion of Robusta in their blends) were very enjoyable if a bit bitter.

If I understood the staff correctly, the beans may have been or included something called Buon Me Thuot Highland Arabica Se - but I couldn't see any labeled bags. I also recall seeing something called Bach Arabica beans on line that sounded like they may be what I want. Does anyone know what beans I should try? I want to make both espresso drinks and iced coffee and assume I need different beans for each. Any hints on preparing, brewing etc would be greatly appreciated, too!

Vietnam is the world's second largest coffee producer outside of Brazil but the bean is mostly Robusta 97 per cent of Vietnam's total output (inferior) vs Arabica grown in Brazil. Coffee was introduced to Vietnam by the French in 1857.

I have recently read that government initiatives have sought to improve the quality of coffee exports, including more widespread planting of Arabica beans and some Chari (Excelsa) and Catimor varietals.

The Vietnamese coffee drinks that I've tried are the 2 traditional styles one cold and one hot. Using a drip filter (called a phin) coarse ground coffee is slowly dripped on ice cubes with sweetened condensed milk added. The other is Café du Monde (canned coffee) is French style coffee with chicory, from New Orleans, Louisiana, typically served 1:1 with milk. They're typically very sweet. I've never tried the coffee straight but could only imagine they would be bitter and astringent if made with mostly Robusta and a dark roast.
Sounds like you most likely tried some Arabica or other varietals not typically found this part of the globe.

These are popular at Phở or pho ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho ) restaurants and Bánh mi
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_m%C3%AC ) take out establishments around here.

I'm in Houston often and in Chinatown you can find Vietnamese coffee in quite a few shops. The name is: cà phê sữa đá. The shops use Cafe du Monde coffee (yellow can), brewed through a slow drip and into a sweetened condensed milk. A small coffee press for this process can be had at most Asian markets. We make it at the house, using a 1:1 ratio, as previously mentioned. The end result is sure to please most every palate.

Brandon

Sample pic of the beverage and coffee press:

There's a coffee importer near me that specializes in Vietnamese coffees:
http://www.heirloom-coffee.com/vietnam.html

I haven't tried them, but their site has a lot of information. There's a blend that includes Buon Me Thuot region Excelsa. You could probably call them to try to identify what you had in Vietnam.

Thanks!! That looks like a great source, and they seem to have exactly what I'm seeking - I'm ordering a variety of their Vietnamese beans today.

I appreciate all the input, but I'm not as focused on the traditional "Vietnamese iced coffee" as I am on the espresso and espresso-based drinks we had in little cafes scattered around Ho Chi Minh City. There's a wonderful (but 9 story walk-up) converted apartment house at 42 Nguyen Hue (the "walking street") with several great cafes and boutiques. We enjoyed the Saigon Vieux coffee shop on the 2nd floor, and the espresso at the Maker Cafe on the 3rd floor was absolutely delicious - classic full bodied chocolate caramel with no bitterness at all.

bluesman wrote: I appreciate all the input, but I'm not as focused on the traditional "Vietnamese iced coffee" as I am on the espresso and espresso-based drinks we had in little cafes scattered around Ho Chi Minh City. There's a wonderful (but 9 story walk-up) converted apartment house at 42 Nguyen Hue (the "walking street") with several great cafes and boutiques. We enjoyed the Saigon Vieux coffee shop on the 2nd floor, and the espresso at the Maker Cafe on the 3rd floor was absolutely delicious - classic full bodied chocolate caramel with no bitterness at all.

Would love to see some photos or videos of your coffee journey there if you have some to post.

I took about 1600 pics while there, but it'll be several days before I can get to them for editing and posting. Unfortunately, I didn't take many of the coffees but I do have some great shots of the city and the cafes we visited. We were blown away by how friendly and interested in us the people are - and the number of serious espresso machines absolutely shocked me. Tiny, dilapidated shops had gorgeous Nuova Simonellis. We saw a few Faemas and LMs, along with several with logos that said Bravo (with which I'm entirely unfamiliar). Our hotel had a Faema superauto that made great espresso. They have a maintenance contract with their supplier, and the machine was both spotless and well adjusted.

We had a wonderful time there and recommend Vietnam as a great vacation place for the adventurous, as long as you use some caution and common sense. I did have to forcefully shove a pickpocket away from us while walking back from a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City late one night, and the level of hygiene and sanitation is not great in the back alley shops we'd visit without hesitation in many other countries. So we didn't eat with our usual reckless abandon, and we took every precaution against street theft (nothing in pants pockets, everything in zipped vest, no jewelry, only jeans and t-shirts, etc). But the local food and beer are excellent - we had amazing pho and banh mi, plus some weird fish (e.g. snakefish and "elephant ear fish") along with some of the absolute best coffee we've ever tasted. We just stuck to known places with a decent level of basic sanitation and reputations for safe sourcing. After being on the Saigon River for hours during a trip to the Mekong Delta, we suspect that any fish that survives in that water wouldn't die if hauled out of it anyway

I picked up some specialty green coffee from Vietnam on another forum in 2014 called Temple Hills Caudat (or Cau Dat) washed Arabica that was pretty good. It had distinct orange notes and was grown at high altitude with very little bitterness. It was a bit one-dimensional and the cuppers from that forum gave it an 87.

I found a couple articles relating to Vietnamese Arabica Coffee and Cau Dat and the Lam Vien Highland area.

http://tuoitrenews.vn/features/30018/vi ... motherland

http://coffees.mobi/vietnam-arabica-coffee-regions

I understand what you're talking about--I had a similar experience some years back with a Vietnamese coffee that violated most of what I had learned/experienced to that time.

After a 2-week student tour through Vietnam, a friend brought back a bag of coffee roasted who-knows-when, covered in oil, left open on his counter, and which produced an extremely sweet chocolate/caramel espresso with no bitterness or rubbery robusta notes and loads of crema. Still leaves me scratching my head. I can only think that there may be a greater variety of robusta and lower-grown arabicas in that area than we imagine here.

I've tried some Northern Thailand coffee from a Canadian-Thai Initiative Doi Chaang. They state single-origin, 100% Arabica, USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, shade grown.

Wonder if the Arabica is similar to what is grown in Vietnam being relatively close.

http://asia-canada.ca/asia-pacific-real ... ee-company

http://www.doichaangcoffee.com/about-us/