Little Saigon cafes and coffee shops are pushing caffeinated culture to new heights. ![]() This, in part, has made Arabica the more prized variety worldwide, known for its sweetness and aroma in contrast to the earthy, intense flavors of Robusta.Īt some point, this perception of inferiority became a self-fulfilling prophecy in the global coffee industry, said Sahra Nguyen, the founder of Nguyen Coffee Supply, a Brooklyn-based roaster that bills itself as the first specialty Vietnamese coffee importer and roaster in the United States.įood 5 Vietnamese coffees to try right now Robusta beans contain twice the caffeine and antioxidants of Arabica, but half the amount of sugar and oils, which impart flavor to the beans once they’re roasted. Yet Vietnamese farmers quickly discovered that while C offea a rabica, the most widely cultivated coffee species in the world, didn’t grow particularly well in the country’s humid climate, another heartier variety, C offea r obusta, thrived. Eventually, boulevards in cities such as Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi became crowded with cafés where patrons would sip coffees mellowed with sweetened condensed milk, a substitution that arose due to the high cost of fresh dairy. The lasting colonial presence instilled in Vietnam a taste for coffee as it was consumed in France: strong, dark-roasted coffees brewed using a single-serve method somewhere between a French press and a pour-over. The French, who occupied Vietnam for nearly a century, introduced coffee in the mid-1800s, seeking to cultivate a crop that could fulfill a lucrative demand for beans in Europe. Why the discrepancy? Blame the long tail of colonialism and a quirk of globalization. Though not all Vietnamese coffees are created equal, many of them do share a rather unexpected trait - the vast majority of “Vietnamese coffee” in America is not made using beans from Vietnam, despite the country being the world’s second largest producer of coffee. Starbucks customers can order an ersatz version off the chain’s “secret menu”: triple espresso with a generous squirt of white mocha sauce and heavy cream. More recently, as the drink has spilled into mass-market consciousness, it’s appeared at coffee shops that might otherwise have no connection to Vietnam or Asia. It’s the crucial counterpart to a crunchy banh mi smeared with paté, or a bowl of pho heaped with fresh herbs. ![]() It’s a fixture of both mom-and-pop noodle shops and international boba chains, minuscule bakeries wedged next to laundromats and upscale fusion restaurants with fancy menus. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) A new take on an old styleĬà phê sua dá - a shot of high-octane coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk over ice - could well be described as the unofficial official beverage of Little Saigon.
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