Coffee culture of Hue people
Coffee culture of Hue can be described in 3 words: concentrated, subtle and slow, like their personality. Because there’re not many amusement parks while too much free time, so they can enjoy coffee at anytime of the day. In the hot summer, you will easily realize the cafes along Huong River being crowdedly occupied all the time.

Hue people usually don’t pick luxurious cafes, they like sidewalk cafes, small cafes along Huong River or shady streets. Their coffee cup is very little, but most concentrated in Vietnam. Hue coffee only has 2 types: black coffee and milk coffee. The cafes always use small and low cups to store, put in 1 or 2 huge ice cubes each cup, wait for them to gradually melt and slowly enjoy.

Hue cafes are usually setup in very quiet and peaceful atmosphere. They open light music, Trinh music (a favorite bolero music genre in Vietnam) or pre-war music. They never talk loudly or laugh but softly whisper. Now, there are many cafes opened in the city, but if you want to enjoy the real Hue’s coffee culture, visit those famous cafes along Huong river or along the streets of Le Loi, Nguyen Cong Tru, Han Mac Tu or Nguyen Sinh Cung,… that are mostly visited by the locals.

The way that Hanoians drink coffee does not differ from Hue, in which there are 2 main types: black and milk coffee. However, Hanoi’s wheather is colder than Hue, so they divide coffee into 4 types: ice brown (coffee + condensed milk + ice), ice black (black coffee + ice), hot brown (hot coffee + condensed milk) and hot black (pure hot black coffee). In addition, Hanoian was the founder of the very unique type of coffee: egg-coffee – combined chicken egg and coffee based on a special secret recipe.

And every time going for a coffee, they also love to enjoy it slowly as the way Hue people do. It can’t be denied that Hanoi is a big city so people have no fresh and quiet spaces, except the sidewalk cafes along Hoan Kiem lakeshore. So, you shouldn’t be surprised if catching a Hanoian calmly enjoys their coffee, while the restaurant where they sit is very old and shabby with bustle and noisy atmosphere from the street outside.

However, Hanoian drink coffee less frequently than Hue. They don’t have the habit of drinking coffee in the morning but normally go to cafes in the evening, except the retirees who have much free time. They drink by small glasses or ceramic mugs. Coffee in every cup is more than Hue a bit but thinner. The most famous street of coffee in Hanoi could be accessed anywhere in the Old Quarter.

Coffee culture of Saigon is very special and different compared to Hanoi and Hue: lots of ice and little coffee. Coffee cups of Saigon people look like coca-cola cups in terms of color, volume and function. In a coffee shop in Saigon, if you call a coffee, they will bring you a very big size cup, you just finish your cup straight away. I would consider it more like “slaking” than “enjoying”. If you visit Saigon for the first time, the coffee drinking style might be a big shock. 

Another interesting thing that is only in Saigon coffee style, people drink coffee by straws. Not at all, while Hanoi and Hue use big ice to drink coffee and small ice to drink tea, then Saigonese do the exact opposite thing. Coffee in Saigon is also very sugary which often dispel the bitter of coffee away. Most of Hanoians and Hue people can’t drink 1 cup of coffee in Saigon, because it’s too sugary and too much, while Saigon people can’t drink coffee in Hanoi and Hue, because it’s too concentrated. 

Travelling-in-Saigon tip: if you see someone sitting for a long time in a restaurant, that person might be an immigrant or tourist from other places. Saigon people come to cafe to lunch, work, quickly grab a coffee then off to work and rarely spend much time in coffee shop. You can easily catch a Saigonese coming in a cafe, ordering a big coffee and got it bottomed-up right away (I really startled when witnessing that). 

The last tip in Saigon: best coffee is sold at vendor cafes on sidewalks; so, if you want to enjoy Saigon coffee style, don’t step in luxurious restaurants, come to a sidewalk cafe instead and order a coffee and truly “enjoy”.