VI
EN
Located in a small alley on Vo Thi Sau Street, District 3, The Hummingbird Cafe resembles an old French villa built in the 1950s. "When renovating, we preserved the original structure, architecture, and classic beauty of the house. We even asked the builders to remove the raised foundation layer after several changes of ownership, revealing the original patterned tiles," Tran Ba Hoa, Co-founder of The Hummingbird Cafe, shared with Travellive.
The Hummingbird Cafe was renovated from an old French villa, preserving its original architecture.
Stepping into The Hummingbird Cafe, customers can still feel the nostalgic charm of the old architecture, while also noticing some modern decorations harmoniously blended into the space. The gentle front courtyard, filled with greenery and featuring areas that welcome natural sunlight, creates an airy and cool atmosphere. Moving inside, one feels a sense of intimacy and warmth, like entering a home.
What makes specialty coffee so special?
The Hummingbird Cafe was born in 2018 from the dream of three specialty coffee enthusiasts. They wanted to focus on quality and sustainability, while spreading the joy of enjoying delicious, homemade coffee and pastries to their customers.
Besides serving coffee, Hummingbird also sells a variety of pastries made by Mr. Hoa's wife.
The cafe's menu doesn't offer a huge selection of drinks, mainly popular options like Espresso, Americano, Cappuccino, and Latte... But it does offer a wide variety of specialty coffee beans for you to choose from: Peru COE #2 Gesha, Vietnam THA1, Ethiopia Berg Wu Selection, Colombia Mokka, Kenya Pb Top Grade, VN Catimor Langbiang, VN Catimor Radar farm...
Specialty coffee is probably no longer a strange concept to coffee connoisseurs. It's not simply about maintaining the inherent quality of the coffee, but also about enhancing its value through various stages. From carefully selecting coffee beans from farms, exporters, and mills; to meticulously adjusting the temperature and time during roasting to produce batches of delicious coffee. Baristas are not only responsible for preserving all the quality attributes of the coffee after roasting, but also for "expressing" them to customers.
Customers enjoy learning about the origin, production methods, types of beans, and especially how to brew a cup of coffee.
As life becomes more developed, consumers' demands for enjoyment and experiences are also increasing. "Nowadays, coffee is no longer simply a daily commodity for those rushing to work. Coffee lovers are becoming more deeply aware and are going back to earlier stages of the production chain to research the origin, types, and processing methods," Bá Hòa observed.
Coffee roasting skills are considered the most important factor in determining the distinctive flavor of each type of coffee on a cafe's menu, or in packaged coffee products. Currently, the Blue in Green roastery – located within The Hummingbird complex – is trusted and used by many specialty coffee shops.
The Hummingbird Cafe focuses on the production process to deliver the best products to consumers.
The Hummingbird Cafe is one and only!
It is known that before establishing its production facility and cafe at Vo Thi Sau Street, District 3, The Hummingbird started as a small rooftop cafe located in an old apartment building on Ton Duc Thang Street, District 1. The Hummingbird Cafe at Vo Thi Sau Street was established and operated concurrently for about a year before closing the facility at 5H Ton Duc Thang Street in 2020.
It's very difficult to standardize the quality of multiple coffee shops within a chain and optimize the customer experience simultaneously.
"Initially, I still thought about and harbored the plan to open a chain of coffee shops, with many different styles but still ensuring consistent quality across all locations. However, in reality, it's very difficult to standardize the quality of the shops and provide an optimal experience for customers. Therefore, since 2021, I have only maintained a model combining a single shop and a shared workshop," Bá Hòa confided.
He further shared that in the future, the cafe will only expand its space to improve coffee production capacity. The Hummingbird will continue to maintain its operating spirit of providing customers with a meticulously produced and brewed specialty coffee experience, and high-quality handcrafted pastries. There is only one cafe bearing the name The Hummingbird!
The restaurant focuses on product quality and customer experience value.
Hummingbirds are the smallest of all birds. They can flap their wings up to 70 times per second to take flight. When asked about the meaning of the cafe's name, Ba Hoa smiled and said, "Although small in size, this type of bird has strong vitality and a powerful ability to survive. Just like the team's aspiration when running this small cafe, we always strive to produce high-quality specialty coffee products for our customers."
The hummingbird is also the only bird capable of flying backward, a metaphor for The Hummingbird Cafe's willingness to step back from the rapid growth of the commercial coffee business to invest in research on the origin, varieties, and processing methods to suit the diverse needs of its customers.
