A caffeine-fueled journey through Vietnam’s rich coffee culture

Coffee is an essential beverage around the world, enjoyed as both a ritual, a social centerpiece, and a stimulant to face the day. In Italy, people enjoy un caffe standing at a bar, and in Senegal, vendors sell spicy ​​café touba at street-side shops called tanganas. In Mexico City, café de olla contains notes of cinnamon and cloves, and in Indonesia, brewers make kopi joss by plunging a piece of burning charcoal into iced coffee. 

The history of coffee in Vietnam

Behind each distinctive cup is its history. Vietnam, in particular, has a storied past tied to the beverage that points to its resilience and ingenuity. First introduced by French missionaries in 1857, coffee’s success was due to Vietnamese laborers who cultivated Arabica. The bean didn’t fare well in the country’s climate, and the more flexible Robusta soon replaced it, flourishing in the Central Highlands and the south. After the Vietnam War, coffee became one of the main exports that helped rebuild the country, buoyed primarily through government investment in coffee crops in the 1980s. Today, Vietnam is the second-largest coffee exporter in the world, after Brazil. 

With the post war boom of coffee production, Vietnamese people found distinct ways to make it their own, including the creation of the Phin filter, a portable metal brewing tool that produces an unapologetically bold, thick, and slightly smoky coffee from the robusta bean, and turning necessity into invention with the use of condensed milk—which was more readily available after the war. When milk was scarce in the 1940s, people whipped egg yolk with sugar to create the country’s iconic egg coffee, while the country’s abundance of tropical palm trees gave rise to the popular coconut. “We’ve always taken what’s limited or what’s plentiful and turned it into something memorable,” says Helen Le, Vietnamese food influencer and founder of Helen’s Recipes.  

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The rise of Vietnam’s caffeine-infused social culture 

Whether you’re in the Central Highlands, where high-altitude farms grow robusta bean, or Ho Chi Minh, where hip alleyway cafes and corner stands serve the famous iced coffee called cà phê sữa đá, coffee drinking clearly emerges as a communal ritual that people savor slowly. “In Vietnam, coffee isn’t just a drink—it’s a lifestyle and a social rhythm. Coffee is everywhere, in every form, and everyone can afford it. People don’t always drink it to stay awake; they drink it to sit. To chat, to hang out, to catch up, to watch life go by,” says Le. 

The caffeine-fueled social fixture has quickly attracted tourists, who have no shortage of options while visiting. “Younger generations and local entrepreneurs have reimagined coffee culture from a place of pride, working to elevate coffee production, roasting, and cafe experiences to earn their spot on the global coffee stage,” says Sahra Nguyen, CEO and founder of Nguyen Coffee Supply. “There is an increasing commitment to craftsmanship and care in Vietnamese coffee — it’s just been overlooked due to historical stigma. That’s a big part of what drives me — changing how people see Vietnamese coffee,” explains Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American and woman-owned importer of Vietnamese beans to the U.S. 

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Best places to try coffee and coffee-infused cocktails

Passionate tour guides, coffee makers, and mixologists throughout Vietnam—including Tran Duc Thang, the head barista at Capella Hanoi—lead the commitment Nguyen describes. Cafes line nearly every corner of the city’s bustling backdrop in Ha Noi. Duc Thang recommends the traditional local cafe Cà phê Nhân—known for its strong Robusta coffee, Gạt Tàn Coffee, which makes a popular salted caramel variation, and XLIII Coffee. This specialty cafe that focuses on pouring hot water over premium light-roasted coffee grounds  in a filter or single-origin pour-overs. 

For a more intimate experience, Tran welcomes guests at the storied Capella Hanoi for a Coffee Trail & Cupping Experience, where he teaches the history and terroir of the country’s coffee landscape, from the brightness of Son La Arabica, grown in the dewy northern mountains, to the rare typica beans from Da Lat, one of the oldest and most prized Arabica varieties in Vietnam. “Cupping is a way to experience the soul of coffee—its aromas, textures, acidity, and stories. When guests begin to ask questions—Where is this from? Why does it taste like fruit?—that’s the moment we’ve achieved our purpose: we’ve sparked curiosity,” he says.

Upstairs at Capella’s Hudson Rooms, Head Bartender Nguyen Ngoc Khanh reimagines these same beans in inventive cocktails. The rooftop bar is at the forefront of the city’s mixology scene. To make its coffee cocktails, the bar employs innovative Hanoi-based distilleries like Ve De Di, which created a bold coffee liqueur from Dak Lak beans. “We saw a chance to become a true destination for this, to dive deeper than just one drink on a menu and build an entire ritual around it,” Nguyen says. 

He employs Robusta from Dak Lak to add depth, saying it doesn’t just add a coffee flavor but also a strong foundation for other drinks to build upon. One of his favorite cocktails blends Vietnamese espresso with a cold-brew amaro, enhanced by a nitrous-shake technique for a smooth, velvety texture. Each pour is just one more example of Vietnam’s evolving creativity, merging traditional craftsmanship with modern innovation.

Just under two hours south of Hanoi by plane, the coastal city of Da Nang offers a different way to delve into coffee. Le, who was born and raised in the central Vietnamese port city, calls the coffee culture here relaxed and unpretentious. 

“For native Da Nang locals, coffee is incredibly simple: a low wooden stool, a tiny glass of strong coffee (almost like a shot), and sitting and talking all morning. No fuss, no overstyling—just honest, everyday connection,” she says. After multiple inquiries from visits to the region over the years, she created a complete guide on Instagram of her favorite Da Nang top cafes, including Trình Coffee for its self-roasted beans and avocado coffee (called cà phê muôi), and A La Café, a small café that’s well-loved by local coffee enthusiasts, tucked in an alley. Perched on a mountainside teeming with fauna and sightings of the endangered red-shanked douc monkey, InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort offers a popular venue where participants learn to make coffee and craft it using techniques from expert baristas. 

The resort also offers a coffee tasting experience, where guests can sample five to six styles while learning about Vietnam’s coffee origins, brewing rituals, and regional variations. “Beyond classics like milk coffee and egg coffee, there’s a world of innovation—coconut coffee, salt coffee, even mango or durian coffee. Vietnamese baristas take pride in experimentation, which says so much about our culture’s adaptability and flair for reinvention,” says Thomas Duong, assistant director of Food and Beverage at the hotel.

A 45-minute drive from Da Nang, the slow-moving hub of Hoi An features more than 100 cafes lining pedestrian walkways, lantern-lit alleys, or backdrops of rice paddies. It offers a superb coconut coffee, best enjoyed on its outdoor patio, perched near the azure waters of An Bang Beach. 

Nearby, Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai, Hoi An gets guests closer to the country’s bean with a weekly Coffee Tasting Experience and a selection of curated coffees at Sol and Sao Bar, including a Modbar pour-over Vietnamese coffee presented in a 225 ml (approximately seven ounces) carafe, brewed with 100 percent arabica beans. 

At ThanhUyen Roastery, owner Thanh Huynh donates part of the business’s profits to local charities and employs workers with disabilities from the aftermath of Agent Orange. Huynh is passionate about the region and offers a glimpse into Hoi An’s rich coffee history with an Airbnb Experience coffee-making experience. 

Each stage of Vietnam’s history has shaped its relationship with coffee, making the drink a cultural emblem of ingenuity and pride. “Coffee came to Vietnam as part of colonial history—but through generations, it became something entirely ours. When you sip a Vietnamese coffee, you’re tasting not just beans—you’re tasting resilience, memory, and hope,” says Thang.

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