Barista Magazine

APR-MAY 2017

Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005

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48 barista magazine of time. The rapport between Tran and her fellow baristas at Bosgaurus and elsewhere across the city is an undeniably strong re- minder that coffee is always about more than just the coffee. A P R O M I S I N G F U T U R E The fi rst time I visited a coffee farm in Viet- nam, I didn't know what to expect. Although I broadly understood the history and politics of Vietnamese coffee, and had the language abilities and cultural sensibility required in my fi eld, I was surprised that there was such little attention paid to the Lam Dong Province's Arabica varieties. Nearly a decade later, I have a very different understanding of what coffee in Vietnam means for Vietnam- ese and consumers elsewhere. Despite the ostensible disconnect between the commer- cial- and specialty-grade coffee worlds, they now materialize side-by-side. It's not lost on me that Tran's signature drink at the 2016 World Barista Championship was a ca phe sua da, or Vietnamese iced coffee, which is the only coffee drink hailing from Vietnam readily available in the Western world. As both industries develop, it will be interesting to see how they conspire, clash, and support each other on a local and global scale. At the moment, there's no direct Vietnam- ese translation for barista, but it might be coming soon. Regardless, it seems like the Vietnamese specialty-coffee scene itself gets to defi ne what it means to be a barista or Arabica producer. Wherever Vietnam lives in your coffee imagination, it's here to stay as both a staggering commodity-coffee-produc- ing origin and a promising specialty-coffee producer. Top: The Bosgaurus build-out in the shadow of Saigon's new luxury apartment buildings. Below: The entrance to La Viet Coff ee's beautiful multipurpose space.

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