When you come to Vietnam, one of the most impressive things is its coffee, which can be found at any corner in this country with a very reasonable price; moreover, its quality will surprise you.
Coffee was brought to Vietnam by a french priest in 1857 and at that time it was the drink for french officials. Later the rich Vietnamese started drinking it, since then it has become the most popular drink here.
Vietnamese mostly drink coffee in the Morning and believe coffee will bring them a nice balance. Lots of Vietnamese also drink it before their breakfast as they reckon coffee will help them with digestion and clean their stomach. Don’t be surprised when you see coffee shops open very early in some cases at 3.00 am.
Recently Vietnam has welcomed many international coffee brands like Starbucks, Gloria Jean’s, but they don’t do well here. Low revenue has force their closure. Why can they not succeed in Vietnam? The answer is their extravagancy and people’s habbit. Vietnamese love strong coffee. According to a research, a cup of Vietnamese coffee has around 200 mg cafein while a cup of Starbucks has about 100 mg. Vietnamese think Starbucks coffee isn’t enough for them since they has drunk strong coffee for a very long time. So what makes Vietnamese coffee stronger? It is their beans. They use more Robusta than Arabica. Vietnam takes 40% of Robusta production of the world. This bean here is much cheaper than Arabica which is said to be more fragrant but less strong. You can imagine you has drank this type of coffee since you were young and now you get old, how can you quit this habbit? The price of Vietnamese coffee is also amazing. It costs just 1 dollar for a cup of good one while with other international brands it can cost 5 dollars, What a good deal!
In Vietnam they just drink 2 kinds of coffee: one called ” black coffee” and the other called ” brown coffee”. Black coffe is just coffee served with ice or without ice. Brown coffee is the coffee mixed with condensed milk. Those coffee are often made by a stainless filter. In the Morning, it is so cool to watch the coffee dripping from the filters drop by drop. So don’t miss a chance to try it when you are in Vietnam.