The story
Coffee reached Vietnam with the French in the 1800s. Vietnam Economic News, published by the country's Ministry of Industry and Trade, dates its arrival to 1857. The green-coffee trader Sucafina says French missionaries brought it, tried it in several parts of the country, and chose the Central Highlands to grow it. The first trees were Arabica, not the Robusta Vietnam is known for now.
Robusta came later. Sucafina says the French brought it, along with a species called Excelsa, in 1908. Vietnam Economic News says Buon Ma Thuot, in Dak Lak province, was picked in 1914 as a plantation for Robusta because of its soil, climate and altitude, and that by 1922 French-run farms covered its red basalt soil. The two sources give slightly different dates, so we show both. For decades after that, coffee grew only slowly.
The big change came in 1986, with the reforms known as Đổi Mới ("Renovation"). According to Sucafina, they opened Vietnam to world trade, allowed private business and private farmland, and made coffee a key cash crop, with state farms and support for households growing coffee on their own land. Vietnam Economic News says the government focused investment on the Central Highlands, and that by the end of the 1900s Vietnam was the leading producer in Southeast Asia and second in the world after Brazil.
Today Robusta makes up most of the crop. Sucafina puts it at around 95 percent; Vietnam Economic News says about 90 percent of the coffee land is Robusta and about 10 percent Arabica, with a tiny area of Liberica. Sucafina says Vietnam's yields per hectare are the highest of any country, and that most farms are private and small: it estimates about 650,000 families farm less than a hectare each.
Most coffee land is in the Central Highlands. Vietnam Economic News says most of the harvested area lies in five provinces there. It names Dak Lak, whose city Buon Ma Thuot is called the country's coffee capital, and Lam Dong and Dak Nong as the other standouts. Sucafina names Lam Dong province in the Central Highlands, and Son La and Dien Bien in the north, as its growing regions.
How it's processed
A coffee bean is the seed inside a small fruit called a cherry. After picking, the fruit has to come off and the seed has to dry, and how that is done shapes the flavour.
In Vietnam, the usual method is the natural process: Sucafina says the whole cherry is most often dried in the sun on plastic tarps. For many years quality got little attention. Sucafina explains that from the start of the reforms until around 1989 the government bought all coffee at fixed prices, so farmers had little reason to sort for quality or to take on Arabica, which is harder to grow.
That is changing. Sucafina says low prices for ordinary coffee and growing interest from specialty buyers have pushed farmers toward better Robusta and toward Arabica. More farmers now pick more selectively and check quality after the harvest. Some are trying experimental methods, such as fermenting with added yeasts or enzymes, or fermenting without oxygen (anaerobic fermentation). For now, Sucafina says, most of that work is done on small lots.
The main Arabica variety is Catimor, a cross that includes the Timor hybrid, which itself has Robusta parentage. Sucafina says Catimor yields well and resists disease but is not usually prized for flavour, so some growers are moving to other varieties; it lists some Typica and Bourbon as well.
Sucafina gives the harvest as November to January in the Central Highlands and October to January in the north.
What it tastes like
Most Vietnamese coffee is Robusta, which tastes different from Arabica. Coffee Review's tasting of a medium-roasted Robusta from smallholders near Da Lat described it as bittersweet and herby, with notes of spearmint, cinnamon and caramel popcorn, and a smooth but lean body. That is one coffee, not a rule for the whole country.
Arabica from the highlands and the newer processed lots can taste quite different, so the tasting notes on each coffee in the registry are the best guide to what is in the bag.