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Introduction
With final offers clarifying and consolidated export approaching, we are in a good position to reflect on a successful second year in Vietnam. In this piece, put together by our sourcing lead, Erinn Buyhoff, we’re reviewing the state of our work in Vietnam, clarifying our goals for the present and near-future, and checking in with each of the supply partners who will be represented among our forthcoming imports this spring. These reflections come after a ~2.5 week visit to the country, meeting with each of the partners detailed below for logistical, qualitative, and overall relational check-ins that we’re happy to say have left a lingering enthused impression even after the dust has settled back home.
Following the success of our first Vietnam import during the 24/25 harvest season, we are entering our second year with a focus on momentum and growth. With demand slowly but steadily increasing, our goals this season are to expand our network to accommodate customer interest based on feedback from last season, further develop and solidify the relationships we initiated last year, and continue building our role as envoys of the two-way coffee cultural exchange between the Vietnamese and American roaster/retailer markets.
Quality and processing improvements this year position specialty Vietnamese coffee to continue making real waves in the U.S. market, and we are poised to be a vanguard in this space. This harvest cycle, in particular, represents a measurable step forward in baseline quality. Despite severe and, in some regions, catastrophic rainfall during cherry maturation, the net effect for the coffees that remained was delayed and more even ripening. Early picking was discouraged, allowing most cherries to reach fuller maturity before harvest. This was followed by an abrupt transition into a cool, dry production season—ideal for controlled drying and stabilization. The result across nearly every partner we visited was improved ripeness consistency and cleaner drying execution than we have yet experienced in Vietnam.
Logistically speaking, last year we workshopped the framework of an efficient export model, bringing a few small Vietnamese producer groups into direct contact with the U.S. market for the first time. This year we are building that framework into a collaborative network of trusted partners in order to confidently grow volume and offset higher market prices with efficient and scalable logistics solutions.
It is also worth noting that Vietnam remains one of the most competitive coffee environments globally, where year-to-year loyalty is rare and buyers willing to prepay often dominate. Against this backdrop, the willingness of our partners to continue prioritizing working with us—despite alternative market pressures—signals that something more durable is coming to fruition, which is perhaps the most gratifying aspect of this whole process so far.
During last year’s trip, most inquiries were marked by a stern warning from the Vietnamese coffee community: “Competition is tough, and loyalty is hard to come by.” Returning to the country this year, we were thankful to see that we had evaded this foreboding, met instead by partners excited to work with us again, and in some cases going out of their way to do so. New potential partners were also easy to come by, with many unsolicited samples and meetings falling taking place organically.
With ongoing volatility in the coffee market and specialty Arabica being the primary segment affected, Robusta continues to prove itself as an anchor for meaningful volume from Vietnam. As we grow our Robusta program, our support of Vietnamese Arabica will follow and help elevate the broader industry through continued quality development.
The feedback given to our producer partners last year was taken seriously. This year they returned with samples and milling outturns that often exceeded our own expectations. This progress has been accompanied by interest in developing their own quality labs to continue pushing the quality ceiling higher in Vietnam.
Though anecdotal, some consistent structural bottlenecks across labs were the prevalence of extremely soft bottled water for cupping, combined with high-elevation boiling constraints, and limited access to full five-cup SCA evaluation setups. Rather than imposing rigid replication of lab standards we are more accustomed to, our approach focused on adaptive standardization: identifying which variables must remain fixed (extraction intent, calibration logic, evaluation language) and which can flex (grind size compensation, roast development adjustments, cupware material) in order to produce operable and repeatable results.
Fundamentally, we believe that the biggest obstacle to skyrocketing enthusiasm for Vietnamese coffee is a simple mismatch in understanding. Unsurprisingly, no one understands Vietnamese coffee better than the Vietnamese producers and roasters who work with it daily. The U.S. market has much to learn from them, and we hope to continue connecting these two markets to the benefit of all involved. Facilitating information exchange (Robusta roast profiles, blend pairings, etc.) and quality feedback (physical and sensorial evaluation data) will support stronger demand and greater producer empowerment. A little later this year, we are planning to invest some real energy into spotlighting how to bring the best out of Robusta in both roasting and brewing contexts—stay tuned for that.
This past year has been one of significant change for Great Cherry, with a reorientation toward specialization in specific areas. After restructuring its previous milling partnership, Great Cherry is refocusing its model on logistics solutions and value-added actions through lot separation, milling, and the creation of quality tiers within its Robusta exports.
Will and Tami, the duo at the helm of the project, have presented several options this year, organized into tiers:
While much of Vietnam’s emerging “fine Robusta” movement centers on fermentation novelty and experimental co-ferments, Great Cherry’s core advancement is more foundational. The primary quality lift comes from disciplined ripeness selection, color sorting, and structured lot tiering that generates measurable improvements before the bulk of the processing is even underway. This distinction creates premium pathways at the level of cherry selection and sorting, allowing more value to flow toward smallholders rather than concentrating solely at the processing stage.
Higher cherry prices this year, driven by the supply-restricting cataclysmic flooding in the South-Central Highlands, pushed regional pricing upward. Nonetheless, Will was able to successfully hedge his position to approach near-parity with initial pricing expectations, identifying even more cost-effective options in the process. As mentioned in the introduction, heavy rains discouraged early picking and improved ripeness consistency across the board, followed by a cool, dry production season allowing coffees to dry and stabilize extremely well, cumulatively resulting in improved consistency and quality—much deserved victories for communities reeling from the acute devastation of the rains.
Finally, Great Cherry’s pivot toward logistics has positioned them as our primary consolidation and export partner this year, proving themselves efficient, communicative, and reliable. To support their growth and strengthen their role as our most trusted export partner, their lab is now equipped with a Kaffelogic unit, and their evaluation lab is now in earnest development. There is truly tremendous potential for Great Cherry to become the trusted Robusta quality evaluation lab in Vietnam, further increasing the efficacy of our continued work together.
Zanya has returned this year with impressive results. Marian has expanded his network to more than 30 families in his area, processing and finding markets for all who bring cherry to sell. His project to install mechanical dryers for more cost-effective specialty Arabica processing remains underway and looks promising for next year.
Last year’s drying challenges due to the late rainy season were not an issue this year, as has already been detailed, with a range of processing styles being the beneficiaries of the cool, dry weather that followed the rains. Although prices are higher due to elevated cherry costs, quality improvements justify the increase.
Marian’s double washed Arabica, in particular, stands out as the structural backbone of our Arabica program this season: intensely sweet, clean, and consistent in the mid-85 to 86 range, with a profile anchored in chocolate, caramelized sugars, and restrained fruit. While experimental lots generate interest, it is this disciplined and repeatable execution that offers scalable opportunity and real footholds into roasters’ menus.
Second, pre-financing and early commitments matter—but only when paired with clear procedures. Another hallmark of
Lots of interest from Zanya include:
During this trip, we calibrated equipment in the field while working on sample roast profile development and cupping protocols in the lab. This alignment clarified our intake and evaluation standards and strengthened the weight of our feedback, and will continue paying dividends as we collaborate from a distance.
96B is primarily a Liberica-focused project—though a small portion of our total work in Vietnam, this remains an intriguing point of collaboration and one that we intend to stick with as that season (which comes a bit later) progresses. More update on this supply chain will crystallize in the months ahead.
Loc Rung (Nature’s Gift) has been on our radar, but is the primary new-to-us partner for this coming season. The connection came via Marian at Zanya, who personally purchases high-quality cherry from them. Loc Rung is a small, three-year-old operation quickly gaining recognition in Asian specialty markets.
Their coffees have already reached high-profile specialty buyers in Europe, Korea and Japan. The team is small: production managers Kate and Leo, a core crew of 4–5 mill and greenhouse workers, and a rotating group of local pickers committed to their strict ripe-cherry-only standard. Few operations in Vietnam maintain this discipline, and the impact of this differentiation cannot be overstated: multiple selective picking passes—rather than strip picking once or twice—fundamentally alter the baseline quality before processing even begins. The improvements in sweetness, clarity, and defect reduction are rooted first in cherry discipline, then amplified through fermentation work. Their elevation range (1500–1850 masl) further supports that quality.
While their washed lots are strong, their fermentation work is exceptional. Carbonic Maceration (Washed and Natural) and an in-house aerobic fermentation style called “Ferveo” are standout offerings. This experimentation has attracted Asian roasters seeking collaborative fermentation trials and co-ferments.
Standout lots this year include:
All samples cupped in their lab were impressive and distinct, and we calibrated roast profiles and cupping standards during the visit to better align evaluation protocols.
Loc Rung is actively pushing the quality ceiling in Vietnam, and building this partnership early should prove valuable in reshaping quality perceptions of Vietnamese coffee over the long term.
Altogether—improved ripeness conditions, strengthened partner alignment, advancing lab standardization, and more clearly differentiated Robusta positioning—this harvest represents a pivotal moment for our Vietnam program. Prices have risen, but unlike prior cycles, quality improvements provide a defensible value proposition to match. If there were ever a year to lean confidently into Vietnam with coordinated and focused effort—this is that year, and we’re doing it.
As the world’s second largest coffee producer by volume and the dominant supplier of Robusta, Vietnam tends to enter conversations through scale. An oft-cited quip captures the mindset: coffee here is considered an “industrial product” rather than an “agricultural one.”
And while from a birdseye perspective this largely rings true, drifting down to earth reveals a level of nuance and intentionality that many specialty-minded roasting companies still aren’t aware of: more and more producers innovating against a system that historically rewards only volume. From controlled fermentations and microlot separations to keen variety selection—even beyond Arabica—there is much now happening that challenges assumptions about what Vietnamese coffee can be.
Vietnam remains a powerhouse of throughput—but certainly not only that.
Our work in Vietnam began through relationships established by our very own Roasting and Sampling Director, Erinn Buhyoff, who continues to lead our sourcing engagement and to coordinate with the partners shaping this segment of the supply chain. As we reflect upon a successful inaugural import this past year (with one more arrival in the pipeline for November), we’re thrilled to look ahead to the forthcoming harvest and to begin making plans to get back to Vietnam ourselves, most likely in January or February.
Though we’re enamored with some of the Arabica offerings we brought in this year, we’d be remiss to start anywhere other than Robusta—and that means starting with Great Cherry.
Coffea canephora’s reputation has mirrored the system that produced it: built for consistency, stripped of nuance, paid on volume. But when incentives shift toward intentional picking, sorting, fermentation, and controlled drying, the cup shifts with it. Great Cherry is a Robusta-focused project built on this corrective idea: that Robusta’s perceived inferiority is mostly an artifact of under-investment, both financially and strategically. Founded by Tami and Will Nguyen, Great Cherry links farm-level engagement with centralized processing to ensure that improvements to sorting, picking, fermentation, and drying are coherent from cherry to export. Based in the Central Highlands, Great Cherry aggregates cherry from surrounding smallholders into a central mill run by Mr. Toan—a veteran robusta processor whose “overripe-then-anaerobic” philosophy underpins the program. The Nguyens bridge farm-gate realities with export logistics so the lab work shows up in the lot, reliably and repeatedly.
The results are decisive. Starting with what would ordinarily be considered overripe cherry, and then applying rigorous anaerobic and honey-processing, Great Cherry’s Robusta Sẻ often achieves 84–85 with Arabica protocols. Sẻ refers a specific Robusta varietal that would be considered the “traditional” Robusta varietal first introduced by the French, and often thought of as “pure” Robusta in Vietnam. The beans are usually much smaller and denser than newer Robusta hybrid varietals (TR4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15), with Sẻ having lower yields per tree but higher cup quality, reframing what the category can express. In our lab, frequent descriptors include banana flower, jackfruit, nougat, dark chocolate, brown sugar, hazelnut. These are not novelties or “good for Robusta” coffees: they are structured, repeatable lots that perform on their own terms and carve out a compelling place for themselves on well-curated coffee menus.
For roasters, fine Robusta behaves differently because it has been handled differently. Lower charge temperatures, adequate aeration, and extended post-crack development help articulate sugars without exacerbating phenolic or rubber notes. Treated with the same consideration normally reserved for high-grade Arabica, Robusta stops behaving like filler and begins to function like a designed structural component—stable, sweet, and intentional.
Marián, originally from Slovakia, and Lim, who grew up in the Central Highlands and is ethnically K’Ho — a group indigenous to this region — founded Zanya after relocating to Lim’s family home at the foot of Lang Biang Mountain in Lạc Dương, just north of Đà Lạt. In the communities around Langbiang, women often manage both household economy and field decisions in practice, even when not named as formal owners — a reality that shaped how Zanya was set up and who is involved in day-to-day work. Their move back was not nostalgic, but pragmatic: high elevation, stable nighttime temperatures, and existing Arabica plantings offered clear headroom if processing could be tightened. From there, they built Zanya around disciplined separations of Catimor, Bourbon, Typica, and Caturra with repeatable, clean execution — not just to emulate legacy Arabica origins, but to demonstrate what this place can do when its own conditions are taken seriously.
These coffees can make for easy-drinking daily drivers as reliably as many roasters’ instinctive preferences for mild Latin American offerings — brown sugar, milk chocolate, apple, orange, white grape — proving that Vietnam can just as effectively provide the backbone for a coffee program as it can spark conversations with Robusta or with the wilder offerings from our third key partner — Lộc Rừng.
If Zanya is about control and alignment, Lộc Rừng explores the more overtly expressive edge of processing. Led by Kate, the project deploys carbonic maceration, Ferveo-inoculated naturals, and extended fermentations as tools for intentional flavor design. Kate runs a compact processing site that functions like a fermentation studio, pulling cherry from a handful of nearby farms at mid-elevations; alongside Arabica she maintains small Robusta and Liberica trials as an R&D lane.
The results are unabashedly vivid: pineapple, melon candy, fudge, cherry pie; or in other iterations cocoa powder, graham cracker, key lime pie, apple cider. These are not balanced on a classical axis — they are directional and calibrated to provoke interest in what fermentation can do. Lộc Rừng also acts as an R&D node for Liberica and Robusta microlots that will become more relevant as availability and calibration mature.
The 2025 cycle of work in Vietnam demonstrated that high-intent coffee is not a fringe experiment here — it is a real and reproducible pathway with massive upside. This matters not only because it broadens the global map of specialty, but because it does so inside a country whose existing infrastructure can support scale once quality is proven and rewarded.
Our work in Vietnam will continue along the same lines that began it: partnership with producers who are not mimicking the conventions of legacy Arabica origins, but building quality inside their own conditions — varietals, climate, infrastructure, and market logic. Continuity is not about expansion for expansion’s sake — it is about stabilizing and advancing projects that already demonstrate what is possible when intention replaces assumption.
Big picture, Vietnam will undoubtedly remain a volume leader — but not for us. Moving forward, our focus will remain on the proof-of-concept of small, ambitious producers working in another register: not industrial efficiency, but disciplined intentionality within the same landscape. Great Cherry, Zanya, and Lộc Rừng are not anomalies, but evidence of an emerging stratum that asks to be evaluated not against Robusta’s past, but against the standards of deliberate coffee anywhere.
What comes next is less a pivot than an accumulation: more seasons of data, more calibration with partners, more examples that make the old generalizations about Vietnam less defensible.
Now is the time to let us know what most interests you for the forthcoming harvest, and — if you’d like to leapfrog to the front of this movement — let your trader know you’d like to come along with us when we next visit this winter.
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