“A politician’s daughter was accused of drinking water and was fined a great big fifty-dollar bill, ‘cos there’s an awful lot of Coffee in Brazil” Frank Sinatra

Vietnam is one of the world’s largest exporter of coffee by volume, but not by value, second perhaps only to Brazil, whose volume of Coffee was crooned by the legendary Sinatra.  The industry in Vietnam employs 2.6 million people (about 3% of the 90m population) and produces more than 1.3 billion tonnes annually, of which Robusta accounts for approximately 97%. Exports account for more than USD 1.3bn an important part of the country’s balance of payments.

Aside from the growing and export business, there is a fantastic local coffee culture. Although traditionally a tea culture, and ‘Cha’ or ‘Tra” is served as an accompaniment to coffee in local shops, coffee was introduced to Vietnam by the French in the mid-1800s.
Today there are several international branded high-end coffee chains including Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, a number of high-end home-grown favorites including Trung Nguyen and Highlands Coffee, and a plethora of mom-and-pop coffee shops serving the masses. The leader in the latter category is Milano Coffee. Fantastic and affordable iced coffee – Ca Phe Sua Da. Try it next time you are in Saigon.