Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/804825
CAPTION considering the livelihood of Robusta producers in a quantity-driven system are not mutually exclusive. Many of these conversations are happening in Dalat. C O F F E E H O N E Y M O O N Dalat is a town of about 200,000 people, 1,500 meters in the south-cen- tral highlands province of Lam Dong. The town is known nationally as the "honeymoon capital of Vietnam" and for its sprawling fl ower greenhouses and terraced vegetable, coffee, and tea farms. With tem- perate weather year-round, French colonial villas in varying states of preservation, beautiful lakes, and an incredible array of fl owers, it re- ally isn't a bad place for a vacation, and Vietnamese domestic tourists certainly know this. It's also a great place to take wedding photos and buy a scarf while sipping hot soymilk from a plastic bag and snacking on a grilled sweet potato while strolling the night market. In a very practical sense, Dalat is a highly navigable and comfort- able highland town that seems somewhat distinctive compared to the fl at rice paddies and sweltering humidity of lowland and coastal Viet- nam. This is where Vietnamese Arabica lives and where I returned in December for an update on all things coffee-in-the-mountains. Some aspects have stayed the same over the past few years—traditional Vietnamese cafés that open at 4:30 a.m. and serve shot-glass-sized coffees with sweetened condensed milk to farmers on their way to the fi elds—and some have drastically changed. I've known Quang and Ngoc of La Viet Coffee since 2013, when Will Frith of Modbar introduced me after an overnight "sleeping bus" trip to visit a farm, but this time around, I had the opportunity to spend time in their multipurpose café and roasting facility. The café is on the outskirts of town in a massive space with cool, cement fl oors and bags full of locally processed green coffee. With roasters, lab, and a café on-site, this has to be one of the most unique coffee spaces in Vietnam. Cafés materialize in many forms across the country, but La Viet stays true to a predominantly Western model with a minimalist drink menu consisting of their own roasted Arabicas on pourover, a few high-quali- ty tea options, espresso drinks, and pastries. This isn't the ubiquitous set-lunch café experience that has been driving cafés in and out of business for years across Dalat. La Viet's consistency coupled with genuine care for quality and consumer edu- cation is commendable when a majority of Vietnamese (and foreign) coffee consumers still expect to see a metal coffee fi lter dripping thick, adulterated Robusta into a pool of condensed milk. I'm sure it helps when your baristas are 100-percent committed to the project. One of La Viet's baristas, Sabet, was born into a local cof- fee-farming family. With experience in both producing and consuming worlds, she is poised to help others understand some of the problems Le : Tran Han, the fi rst Vietnamese Barista Champion, of Bosgaurus Coff ee Roaster, Saigon. Right: An Arabica-based ca phe sua da signature drink blends traditional with specialty at Bosgaurus. 42 barista magazine