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Recently, Sahra Nguyen, founder of the coffee brand Nguyen Coffee Supply, organized a two-day coffee tasting event in Brooklyn, USA. She was completely surprised by the overwhelming response from the public: "I really couldn't believe that people lined up for over an hour just to try Vietnamese coffee." Despite only having three years of experience in the industry, Sahra is the first person to bring the distinctive roasted and ground coffee beans of Vietnam to the United States.
Sarah Nguyen - owner of Nguyen Coffee Supply
Over the past few years, many Vietnamese coffee roasters in the US have gone from being virtually unknown to becoming a phenomenon across the country. Many coffee shops have sprung up in cities dubbed "caffeine meccas" such as Philadelphia, Seattle, Austin, Portland, Oregon… “The increasing number of Vietnamese coffee shops shows that the Vietnamese business community is very keen to build a Vietnamese coffee market in the US,” shared Thu Pham, co-founder of the Coffee Roasters brand in Philadelphia.
In late September, Thu Pham's Coffee Roasters opened its first Vietnamese roasted coffee shop in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Sarah Nguyen's shop is located further afield in San Francisco, Texas, and in a Vietnamese coffee truck in Kansas City. During the pandemic, while many businesses struggled, Sarah's coffee orders increased exponentially. She reported that her business grew 13-fold in 2020.
Thu Pham - co-founder of the Roasters coffee brand
From Vietnamese coffee cups that don't taste "Vietnamese" at all.
Most of the Vietnamese coffee that can be found in the US does not originate from Vietnam.
In fact, Vietnam is the world's second-largest producer of coffee beans and has also preserved a unique coffee brewing tradition for the past 150 years; USA Today has stated that "Vietnam has the strongest coffee culture in the world." However, for decades, Vietnamese coffee has been difficult to source in the US. At long-established Vietnamese restaurants in America, when someone orders a cup of Vietnamese coffee, it's actually Cajun. The most popular Vietnamese-style coffee drink in the country is made with roasted coffee beans and chicory from the Cafe du Monde brand, originating in New Orleans.
Sarah Nguyen has seen worrying problems stemming from this confusion. Following the trend of Asian flavors like bubble tea and matcha, many American coffee shops have started mixing roasted black coffee beans with condensed milk and calling it Vietnamese coffee, even though it has no connection whatsoever to coffee products in Vietnam. Many food bloggers have even discovered tricks to create a Vietnamese iced milk coffee at Starbucks.
Many coffee shops in the US make Vietnamese coffee using roasted coffee beans with chicory originating from New Orleans.
“This happens frequently; large businesses want to profit from Asian culture, but they don’t respect cultural integrity,” Sarah Nguyen said. “In fact, every time I order Vietnamese coffee in a cafe, it tastes completely different. I ask the barista about the ingredients and usually get answers like, ‘That’s coffee from Ethiopia. We add sweetened milk to it.’” Sarah has tried countless Vietnamese-labeled coffees everywhere in the US, from old cafes to trendy restaurants, and none of them actually come from Vietnam.
Somehow, Vietnamese coffee has become popular – but it lacks the authentic Vietnamese flavor or ingredients, and it doesn't have the touch of a Vietnamese hand. This is part of the motivation behind Sarah Nguyen's decision to start a Vietnamese roasted coffee company in Brooklyn.
Redefining Vietnamese coffee in America.
Both Sarah Nguyen and Thu Pham agree that the lack of authentic Vietnamese coffee in the US is an "unfair" situation.
Coffee beans come in two main types: arabica and robusta. Arabica beans, primarily used in high-end coffee roasting establishments in South America and Africa, are favored for their sweetness, acidity, and hints of blueberry or cherry. However, growing arabica beans is quite difficult in Vietnam due to the hot and humid climate. Instead, 90% of Vietnamese coffee is the harder, less sugary, robusta variety. Robusta beans contain nearly double the caffeine content of arabica. Thanks to its relatively low cultivation costs, robusta has become popular among large-scale instant coffee producers.
Robusta coffee beans are roasted and ground manually.
However, mass production of robusta coffee has led to it being labeled as a low-quality bean. This is because mass-produced coffee factories rarely implement the same rigorous quality control as artisanal roasters. "But quality control alone doesn't reflect the true quality of robusta," Thu Pham said.
To prove this, Thu Pham used a robusta coffee filter sourced from a farm in the Central Highlands. She poured hot water in, waited for the carbon dioxide to bubble – a sign of freshly roasted coffee. The result was a rich cup of coffee with a hint of chocolate aroma.
Sarah Nguyen also said that she heard a lot of feedback from people who consider themselves "coffee enthusiasts" after the taste tests in New York. They all had quite surprised reactions such as: "Before, I always thought robusta beans were very coarse so I never thought about trying them, turns out I was wrong."
For the sake of "cultural integrity"
Since Thu Pham and Sarah Nguyen started their coffee roasting businesses in late 2018, Vietnamese coffee has spread throughout the United States. They emphasize that they don't see the wave of Vietnamese roasted coffee as competition between brands, but rather as partners in changing perceptions of Vietnamese coffee in America, as well as bringing more value to Vietnamese farmers' crops. In fact, as Thu Pham shared, many American businesses have contacted her and expressed interest: "We're thinking about doing this model. Where do you source your coffee? How do you roast it?...”
Currently, Thu Pham is collaborating with the Fat Milk coffee brand in Chicago. In Seattle, four Vietnamese coffee shops have opened since 2020. The Vietnamese roasted coffee brand Portland Coffee has expanded rapidly this year, to the point where the shop is struggling to find enough robusta beans to meet demand. In Anaheim, the Trung Nguyen coffee brand also opened its first US coffee shop earlier this year called King Coffee. Or Tong's Phin Coffee Club, roasted on rambutan wood and infused with chocolate and butter, is now sold in many places in the Central Market in Texas.
Nguyen Coffee Supply's packaging is lovely and "friendly".
Phat Nguyen, a Vietnamese American who runs Pittsburgh Ineffable Coffee, using Thu Pham brand coffee alongside traditional American coffee, said: “It’s amazing how many people here know about pho, banh mi, and handcrafted Vietnamese coffee. Seeing my country’s culture spread to so many people is truly wonderful. I think if we don’t spread our culture, eventually it will cease to exist.”
