Let's have coffee!

Talking about this dark, bitter drink is not easy for me.

First, I'm not a big fan of this liquid drug, second, what I know about the coffee life style in Saigon is little. Vietnamese love coffee. Male, female, elder, younger. Morning. Afternoon. Evening. Anytime in a day, raining days, office hours. By weekend some spacious coffee shops with aircon could be a favourite gathering place for family, with kids running around, screaming in joy.

I can't spend hours and hours there, to play with my laptop or Ipad as many people do these days. I also can't sit there just to "tám" (a popular jargon, i.e to chat, to gossip, to blah blah blah...). The word "coffee" doesn't mean a drink to us anymore, it's like a socialised activity, a company of good friends, a romantic date, a business meeting...that we can't live without.

                    Cafe phin - a favorite choice for majority of Vietnamese in Saigon. 

Since I was in the school, my classmates already used to drink very strong coffee, without any sugar. To them it was like a drug, a magic potion to keep them awaken during the exams. In Saigon most people prefer "cafe phin", coffee from the filter, with sugar or without, or with condensed milk. The flavourful brew slowly percolating through the filter would challenge your patience to sip the first coffee of a day.

                Two "cafe phin" - one with condensed milk, another - black with sugar.   

Hardly to imagine how many coffee shops in Saigon: from the spacious, ideally located, with nice interior design, to the tiny street stand with a few cheap wooden chairs right on the sidewalk or huge garden coffee in the suburb, from the popular Trung Nguyen, Highlands to the trendy Coffee Bean, nydc, Gloria Jean's, or newly sensational comer - Starbucks.

                  Cafe Terrace - one of the first trendy coffee spots in Saigon, good location, good food. 

                       Mojo - a luxe place in Đồng Khởi street - a "Champs Élysées" in Saigon. 

                Central Cafe - deserted in the morning but at night - a gathering place for the young elite. 

          Another stylish coffee spot - Fly cupcake, mostly fancy drinks & cupcakes are in demand here. 

I said sensational, because long before the first Starbucks launched in Saigon, it caused a hot dispute in the social network, among business communities, and of course among coffee lovers. Trung Nguyen, the No 1 coffee in Vietnam, dared Starbucks to compete, but according to many people, Trung Nguyen's founder seemed to mistake by judging the drink's quality from Starbucks. It's not about the coffee, it's about the lifestyle, the trend that Trung Nguyen hardly build as they always associate their image with geniuses like Mozart, Einstein.

                The first Starbucks in Saigon, just behind the old New World Hotel.  

                   Trung Nguyen serves tasteful coffee but their slogan has no taste.   

                  Highlands Coffee - one of the first trendy and successful coffee chains in Saigon. 

                100% coffee - a very inexpensive coffee shop in district 5, 12,000 VND per cup. 

Many of my friends can't start the day without a cup of black coffee, while I always have a problem if I drink it without breakfast. I feel dizzy. I love "cafe phin" with condensed milk or another drink called "bạc xỉu" - our Vietnamese Latté. Over the past few years, we are struggling over the bad quality food substitute issues. Coffee is one of them, that's why "100% coffee" shops appeared, but only 12,000 VND per cup. Is it a real coffee? Or just another substitute?

                     Hot coffee with condensed milk, if too strong a pot of boiling water always near by.    

In Hanoi, I heard about the famous coffee with egg cream at "Cafe Giảng" or "Cafe Đinh"(*), the recipe has been created by a Vietnamese "bartender"-Nguyễn Văn Giảng who used to work at the old hotel Metropole in early 1940s, he creatively mixed a popular cappuccino with egg cream and now it became a signature drink for Hanoi, specially good in the winter days.
Both places now managed by his children. "Cafe Đinh" opened long after "Cafe Giảng" but seems more preferable by the youth in Hanoi. What attracts them to this place? Probably not only good egg coffee but also the mystery entrance that might scare first-time guests as in the below video.

In the old days my mother used to add a little bit of butter to her black coffee and she loved to sip her drink with durian. Today though I'm not a coffee addict, but if you ask me to go for coffee - I'll pick Trung Nguyên for "cafe phin", and The Coffee Bean for Latte.  

           Iced coffee - one with condensed milk, another - sugar, makes the conversation more flavourful. 

Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter after Brazil. Drinking coffee is already rooted in our culture since 19th century, I'm curious how is the trend in Vietnam in the next decades, how is the battle between the traditional "cafe phin" and "the western coffee lifestyle", let's believe that both of them will stay as the top choice for everyone. 

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(*) Cafe Giảng: 109 Yên Phụ, Hà Nội & 39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân, Hà Nội 

     Cafe Đinh: 13 Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hà Nội