Unit 2: City Life - Looking Back

Ho Chi Minh City’s Coffee Culture Ho Chi Minh City is a metropolis where life is very busy and hasty. The best way to enjoy the balance in your mind in such a busy city is to sit on the balcony of one of the numerous coffee houses scattered throughout the city. In this way you will be out of the crowd but able to look down on the street below. You will also be drinking the beverage that must be at least partly responsible for the kinetic energy that has transformed this city into one of the busiest commercial centres of Southeast Asia in just 20 years – it is coffee. The classic Vietnamese coffee served in this city comprises strong coffee, dripped from a small metal filter into a cup containing a quarter as much sweetened condensed milk, then stirred and poured over ice in a glass. Coffee was introduced to Viet Nam by the French in the late 19th century, but the country quickly became a big exporter. At Trung Nguyen Coffee - the Vietnamese equivalent of Starbucks, with a chain of cafés across the city - the coffee menu stretches to five pages. The varieties of Vietnamese coffee produced by Trung Nguyen deserve exploration. They come with different bean combinations and recipes, and nice names such as “Success”, “Creation”, “Discover” and “Thought”. The "Passiona", another brand of Trung Nguyen, has been promoted for women with the promise that drinking this type of coffee would maintain perfect skin and a life of “passion and success”.