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C
offee - its cultivation and con-
sumption - plays a greater role
in daily Vietnamese life than
many travellers realise. Coffee
lovers often belatedly encounter coffee
in Vietnam and then know too little
about where to look and what to look
for to really enjoy the local café culture
to the fullest.
As general manager of a famously
historic hotel, I meet numerous guests
grappling with the Vietnam they read
about and the Vietnam outside our lob-
by doors. After rowing sampans in the
Delta, snacking on spring rolls and tick-
ing off the landmark attractions, they
want to see the ‘real’ Saigon.
My advice to dedicated culture-
seekers is to explore Vietnam through
its coffee houses. Vietnam is a cof-
fee powerhouse and its cafes are often
conceptual, intriguing spaces offering a
window onto the city’s best views, art
and architecture and, occasionally, into
its colourful past.
The role of coffee is so deeply em-
bedded in Vietnam’s social landscape
that it’s hard to imagine this country
without its ca phe sua da (iced milk
coffee), its tin drip filters and its plastic
lawn chairs facing the ever-changing
spectacle of the street. Every
morning,
sheltered
by a leafy tree or
tucked into
a quiet al-
ley, Saigon’s elderly, office workers, taxi
drivers and people from almost every
other walk of life converge on the side-
walks for a leisurely chat over the day’s
first cup. Visitors to Vietnam cannot fail
to note this vaguely European tradition,
played out wherever there are a few
empty square meters and a little shade.
In fact, we have the French to
thank for the fertile plantations along
the Annam Plateau that last year yield-
ed enough beans to propel Vietnam to
first place among the world’s largest
coffee exporters. Six varieties of coffee
are grown in the complex climates and
microclimates of the Central Highlands,
and the intense, broad palette of Vi-
etnamese coffee is credited to careful
blending of these different beans, and
long, slow roasting in butter oil.
Perhaps the best place to get your
first taste of high quality Vietnamese
beans, and a five-star view to boot, is
in the Caravelle’s own Lobby Lounge.
Floor-to-ceiling glass windows let in
the tropical sunlight and offer an un-
rivaled lookout over leafy Lam Son
Square, the historic and cinematic
heart of the city. Across the square is
the ‘Continental Shelf’ - as it was fondly
nicknamed by war correspondents - of
the Continental Hotel. Film buffs may
be interested to learn that scenes in
the 1992 French epic, Indochine, that
take place at the Continental’s terrace
cafe were in fact shot on the sidewalk
of the Caravelle Hotel.
From the air-conditioned comfort
of the Lounge, you can enjoy the drip-
drip-drip of Vietnamese-style
filter coffee. This is a finely
ground dark roast, in-
dividually brewed in
a metal drip filter or
‘phin’. On the side-
walks, fresh milk is
replaced with easy-to-
store condensed milk for
a kind of sweet flat white.
The higher the mercury
climbs the more the icy
JohnGardner
, gen-
eral manager of the
Caravelle Hotel, is a
big fan of Saigon’s
café scene. Here, he
gives the lowdown
on the city’s best
caffeine dens.
THE COFFEE CULTURE
Saigon’s cafe culture
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