7 trendy cafes to try when coming to Hanoi

Opposite a classic French villa, a few young Hanoians drink coffee latte on tables spread out along the sidewalk in the dim late afternoon sunlight. Above, vines creep up the sides of the pale yellow wall toward the ancient green shutters. Motorcycles whizzed below. Vietnamese coffee vendors talk softly over their coffees, watching the crowds go in and out of the famous pho on the corner.

Hanoi's coffee culture, like much of its old-fashioned charm, is connected to its French colonial heritage. The French first brought coffee into Vietnam in 1857 and by 1950 the country was producing and exporting instant coffee, with an emphasis on Robusta. Vietnam is currently the world's second largest coffee producer, harvesting more than 1.5 million tons per year and accounting for 40% of the world's Robusta output.

The city still maintains a vibrant cafe culture and is deeply embedded in people's habits. Until recently, the Vietnamese still believed in their own coffee tradition, creating an art of roasting and brewing strong, intense Robustas coffee. But a chain of Third Wave coffee shops across the city is building a new dimension to Vietnamese coffee. These shops find and roast the country's finest beans, supporting Vietnam's tiny Arabica coffee market while refining classic Vietnamese Robustas. They also import coffee from all over the world to give new inspiration to Vietnamese people. Here are a few of the outposts of sophistication and creativity in Hanoi's coffee world.

Kafeville

Kafeville is a popular specialty coffee shop in Hanoi that has played an important role in promoting the city's better, better coffee movement over the past three years. They were the first coffee shop in the city to specialize in alcoholic beverages, and they roast everything in-house. Today, they offer V60, AeroPress, Chemex and Vietnamese-style drip coffee. They showcase coffees sourced solely from Vietnam but also import green whole beans from Burundi, Ethiopia, Indonesia and elsewhere overseas. Kafeville's main sources of Robusta, which they mainly use for brewing, are farms in the provinces of Da Lat and Lam Dong in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, but most of their Arabica comes from Colombia. They also serve cascara tea and homemade cakes.

Although this cafe is prettier than most roadside cafes in Hanoi, the design is sparse and not suitable for an Instagram post. The shop is located in a dead-end alley opposite the post office, between the Hanoi Botanical Garden and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. They also have a smaller location just north in the Truc Bach neighborhood.

Address: 23 Yen Ninh Street, Truc Bach, Ba Dinh, Hanoi.

Tranquil Books & Coffee

In some cities, silence like Tranquil Books & Coffee can feel suffocating if not handled properly. But in the constant chaos of Hanoi, a peaceful little corner of this cafe is urgently needed. Just west of the Old Town, their main branch is down a side street with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and small lofts, exposed brickwork, an upright piano and a John Lennon portrait .

Tranquil has been serving specialty coffee in Hanoi for many years. Their commitment to making high-quality coffee and creating a quiet space dedicated to books has attracted the attention of a large number of young Vietnamese. They now have three locations and serve espresso and pour-overs. Their espresso drinks are an 80/20 blend of Vietnamese Arabica and Robusta, while their hand pourer is 100% Arabica and their Vietnamese drips are full Robusta. Their coffee is mainly micro coffee from Cau Dat, an area in the coffee center of Da Lat, as well as Dak Nong province.

Address: No. 5, Nguyen Quang Bich, Cua Dong, Hanoi

Blackbird Coffee

Blackbird Coffee is located on a quieter street near the Old Town, a warm orange cafe with a few small chairs outside that is almost always full. This place is busy almost all day and is open until 10pm. Vietnamese people never seem to be too bothered about drinking their coffee at the end of the day.

Blackbird is both a roaster and a coffee shop, focused on improving Vietnamese coffee and offering Vietnamese Arabicas and Robustas. The roasters and founders behind Blackbird are committed to working with every whole-grain coffee they can, but they focus on current Arabica, filter-brewed as well as machine-brew, including the AeroPress. Their Arabicas are mostly pre-processed whole beans from Lang Biang in Da Lat, while their Robusta is produced in Duc Co, Gia Lai province.

The space here is designed in the style of a typical Hanoi cafe and is close to tourist areas for people to easily stop and relax.

Address: No. 5, Chan Cam, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi.

D'codeS Coffee Lab

D'codeS Coffee Lab is both a coffee training organization and a coffee shop to improve the entire coffee supply chain across Vietnam. They focus on making coffee more sustainable, more accessible, by showing people that Vietnamese coffee is more than just strong Robusta coffee with sweetened condensed milk and added ice. The name D'codeS is a combination of "decoding the senses".

The cafe offers every brewing method a customer could ask for, and the space is set up to help customers learn all it can from baristas or roasters.

Opened in 2017, D'codeS is the leading training facility of the first Specialty Coffee Association in Vietnam. It's all about helping people build relationships throughout the journey from seed to cup of coffee. They offer training courses at their location in Hanoi and on farms in Central Vietnam. They research best practices for coffee farming and conduct training courses for farmers, traders, roasters and baristas on how to improve sustainability, quality and market accessibility. school. They also offer standard SCA training, including CQI Q graders and specific classes on everything from extraction to processing and sensory skills.

Address: 127 Bui Thi Xuan, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi

Simple Coffee

Tucked away in Tay Ho neighborhood to the north of the city center, Simple Coffee is a coffee shop and direct commercial roaster specializing in microbial products from farmers in the North and Central Highlands of Vietnam. Their producer-centric model helps Simple understand farmers' production methods and work with them to improve their farming and processing methods.

The cafe itself was also established as a social enterprise, employing young people with intellectual disabilities and training and supporting them.

Most of Simple's coffees are Arabica and Catimor, although their espresso blend consists of about 10% Robusta, sourced from a farmer in the northern highlands. They are also working to import coffees where possible, including Bourbon and Golden Typica, as well as honey-based coffee, a new variety for the store. Their bar has about 10 different coffees.

For regular customers, Simple has also set up an innovative loyalty program: you can buy a bag of their coffee to leave on the store shelf so that whenever you come in, they make it. from your pocket and charge only a small service fee. Simple Coffee has many stores in Hanoi and a branch in Bangkok.

Atelier Coffee

Atelier Coffee is a roaster and coffee shop just off Hanoi's famous train tracks, but they seem to have shied away from the tourist sights and focused on the Vietnamese clientele. The design of the shop is one of the most modern in Hanoi. Atelier does all the roasting work in-house and focuses on Vietnamese Robusta and Arabicas, although they also have an interest in other micro-producers from Vietnam and around the world.

For Arabica, they cooperate with farms in Cau Dat, Lam Dong province, in the Central Highlands. Wyatt Pham, a member of Atelier, said they are committed to helping Vietnamese farmers produce better coffees and improve their consistency. They rotate varieties every few months, having recently switched from organic Catimor to pure Arabica on their espresso bar.

Address: 65A Ton That Thiep, Dien Ban, Hanoi

Bear Coffee and Bakery

Bear Coffee and Bakery is hidden in the middle of the Old Quarter, mixed with shops selling handicrafts, tailors, noodle shops or classical colonial architecture houses and cafes that are considered to be temple keepers. old Hanoi coffee culture. But unlike its neighbor, Bear Coffee and Bakery does not have elderly customers sitting on plastic chairs outside like other classic cafes found in the old quarter.

This third wave coffee shop and roaster specializes in Vietnamese Arabicas, serving up exceptionally delicious grilled dishes, a rarity in Hanoi. Customers often choose to sip coffee made from the latest roast to eat with fresh croissants and bagels. Most of the restaurant's customers are tourists and locals. Bear Coffee and Bakery not only offers visitors the opportunity to discover the latest ideas in Vietnamese coffee, but also a place to buy coffee to take home as a gift. A note about cakes: the cakes here are also completely different from those at most Vietnamese bakeries, try a loaf of sourdough bread to add to the experience.

Address: 33 Hang Be, Hang Bac, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi.