Harvest Celebration at The Workshop

Yesterday I went to celebrate the new harvest of 2016/17 at The Workshop in Saigon. Despite the hardship of the last year that hit Vietnam quite hard with strange and completely atypical weather conditions that in some regions of Vietnam reduced the harvest to merely 60% of the normal amount, the new beans we sampled were amazing.

We started with tasting samples of the new harvest, brewed up by The Workshop's excellent baristas and at times by the farmers themselves, who apparently enjoyed it and had a good time. The event was not just intended to celebrate the coffee itself, but also the farmers who make this type of speciality possible by dedicating their whole existence to it.

There also was a public cupping I attended together with some fellow coffee lovers and we tested 5 different beans from Vietnam, from an excellent Catimor, my personal favourite, to a great Red Bourbon, the primordial coffee tree of Vietnam, brought by the French back then when everything started in the land of the dragon children. Red Bourbon is very interesting and I love the flavour profile of this old variety. I definitely need to get more into this one.

Also a part of my coffee adventure:

• My coffee adventure
• Egg coffee in Vietnam
• The issue of fake coffee in Vietnam
• The main coffee producing countries in the world
• A direct comparison of Arabica and Robusta beans
• The origins of coffee and the global spread
• History and significance of coffee in Vietnam

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