Although their backgrounds are unrelated, "Coffeeholics" choose coffee to define themselves. These can be "baristas" - bartenders, artisans coffee roaster, the founder of specialty coffee chains in Ho Chi Minh City, often accidentally becomes the "teacher" of coffee lovers. "No teacher will challenge you to do it, especially with specialty coffee, coffee is not just coffee but also a subject, the more you learn, the more you find yourself... sinking," Nguyen Ngoc An, 26 years old, student at a coffee training school. D'codeS in-depth coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City shares.
Controversial expensive price
About 5 years ago, the wave of "specialty coffee" (specialty coffee) is gradually creating its own market, especially among young people. Mass coffee drinkers are also gradually becoming more interested, even though they cannot yet adapt to the "sour" type of coffee, which is not as strong or bitter as traditional coffee.
One morning, my retired friend and I went to a specialty coffee shop on Tu Xuong Street, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. Guests are offered to try a cup of espresso from Ethiopian coffee beans (100% Arabica). "Aromatic, but sour, bland, not very familiar...", that is the feeling of a first-time visitor enjoying a famous coffee variety from Africa - a place considered to have the second best coffee in the world. gender. According to the World Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), Panamanian Geisha coffee from the Americas is considered the most delicious and expensive in the world. The price of this type of coffee can be up to several tens of million VND/kg.
In coffee shops marked "signature" - "distinct mark" when there is "specialty coffee", that is where you can easily enjoy coffee in all ways around the world: machine brewed, brewed filter, manual (pour over), cold brew (cold brewed coffee)... Some shops that have been and are emerging in Ho Chi Minh City that the writer has experienced have drinks made from domestic and foreign "signature" coffee. Expensive imports: Starbuck coffee, The Workshop, Rang Rang coffee chain, Every Half coffee, Soul Specialty coffee (the only place that sells 100% Vietnamese Robusta beans according to all preparation methods), Amazing Coffee... One thing in common is that the owners of the coffee shops The Vietnamese coffee shops mentioned above are all very young, well-educated about coffee and passionate about changing the positioning of Vietnamese coffee on the world coffee map.
Tran Le Minh Truc (31 years old) is one of the famous "believers" among coffee enthusiasts in Ho Chi Minh City. He is the co-founder of the specialty coffee chain Every Half (EvH). This chain has 3 branches in District 1, District 3 and Thu Duc City. Truc is from Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak, the Robusta coffee capital of Vietnam and the world, but until becoming a "Coffeeholic", this young person admitted that he had never drank his own coffee. "Partly because in the countryside there is no culture of drinking coffee like in Saigon, then my parents said coffee was not good for children so they didn't let me drink it. It wasn't until I went to Ho Chi Minh City to study that I learned about it." culture invites each other to go out for coffee and falls in love," Truc said.
Even though I've been making coffee for many years, what is the best cup of coffee? That was the question that Truc always wondered when he started his journey to learn about coffee beans after 10 years of experience with mixing, purchasing, and evaluating coffee quality at large coffee shops in the city. HCM. Truc contemplates after his journey to find a good cup of coffee: "After grinding the coffee beans, they are split into two halves. For me, each half has the same soul even though it has been split in half when preprocessed. If you open your heart and receive that cup of coffee, you are the other half of the lost coffee bean. Don't be too strict with coffee, be kind to it. That's why I took the name Every Half - Half goes to the chain.
Previously, because of his passion for coffee, Truc spread articles about growing clean coffee from 2016 - 2018, held discussions to share about specialty coffee, and organized coffee tours to visit coffee shops. farms all over the country to find and buy delicious coffee following the sustainable trend "from farm to cup" (from garden to cup of coffee).
According to Truc, delicious Vietnamese coffee is increasingly popular and accepted both domestically and internationally. Currently, EvH collects most coffee from countries around the world. "About 30% are used domestic coffee beans, the remaining 70% are imported, such as African and American coffee, which still dominates in sales volume. But Vietnamese coffee beans are receiving increasing attention. and increase the number of purchases", Truc shared.
By focusing on cooperating with small farms that need direction for output, the EvH chain provides technical support and purchases of associated products, both increasing input coffee output for EvH as well as such as increasing quality, techniques and income for farmers. Truc said: "The goal is that Vietnamese products linked to production will account for 40 - 50% of EvH's output in the coming years, and aim to export quality Vietnamese coffee products to the market. world".
Go to school and taste test
On a sunny afternoon in mid-February, at the coffee tasting class at D'codeS School, there was a group of about 10 students reviewing lessons. They just went through a coffee cupping and evaluation course for 10 consecutive days. In 2018, D'codeS was certified as a Coffee Specialty Training School according to international standards of SCA - World Specialty Coffee Association.
Here, with the in-depth course, students who want to "Decode the flavor" of coffee types will be able to choose courses such as: Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) Sensory course, learning to taste and evaluate coffee, to act as an appraisal expert; "Greenbean" course learns about standards for evaluating green coffee beans (before roasting) for processing, preservation and trading; Roasting course to learn how to roast coffee; Barista course: learn to make coffee with a machine, manage the bar, and take care of customers; Brewing course: learn coffee extraction (making coffee using tools other than a brewer).
Specialty coffee is the most delicious coffee beans, produced in regions with special climates, must pass rigorous screening conditions and achieve a minimum score of 80/100 according to the Association's scale. World specialty coffee (SCA).
Mr. Truong Duy Phuong, an international instructor certified by SCA, said: "Black, dark, bitter" is the traditional taste, but because of that limited perception, Vietnamese coffee is still only exported raw. , even though Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter in the world. According to coffee expert James Hoffmann (Australia) in the book "Coffee World Map", specifically for Robusta coffee, Vietnam has the largest export output in the world but mainly exports raw materials as raw materials for other products. products containing caffeine. According to this foreign expert's assessment, in terms of flavor profile, there are very few high-quality coffees in Vietnam, most of which have a flat taste, a lot of wood and lack of sweetness or variety.
And that is also the reason that Phuong and many young "coffee addicts" have changed their career path to choose coffee to learn in-depth. Le Thi Oanh, CQI's Q Arabica Grader expert, is only 30 years old this year but has had nearly 3 years of intensive study in coffee. She shared: "Young people's need to learn about coffee is huge. I feel happy because it will be a way to soon change the face of the coffee industry, which is Vietnam's strength coffee map world" .
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