I’ve been messing around with Vietnamese style coffee lately and have been looking for some better beans than Cafe du Monde. I believe I have finally arrived at my destination. This coffee arrived quickly and is obviously super fresh. (Huge bloom when I brew it.) The beans are roasted a bit lighter than French roast; no expressed oils. I personally think that’s the darkest ideal roast level so I’m very happy there. Beans are fairly low on aroma. Bit of chocolate and the graham cracker note mentioned on the bag. I brewed them 12:1 using my V60 Switch, with a 50% initial dose of water, followed by a 3 minute rest, and then the rest of the water added after draining that first dose. This creates a strong short cup, similar (I hope) to the output from a phin. Aroma is still a touch subdued in the cup but I think the overall flavor is great. Chocolate, some tobacco/leather, more of those graham notes. Combined with condensed milk, a delicious treat. To be clear, this coffee tastes quite a bit cleaner than Cafe du Monde. If you love the chicory flavor you may be disappointed here. But I really like this one! Enjoy! Update: watch out for this stuff; it’s strongly caffeinated! I usually drink two cups of arabica each morning, each brewed with 23g of beans. One 16g cup of this stuff feels far more powerful than both of those combined. Read more
Maybe it’s just my equipment but after trying countless brands this coffee is excellent. The beans are not oily and will not clog your grinder. Also when setting a grind it is consistent. The flavor is rich and contains a good amount of caffeine. Like the beans it is Robust. Read more
Love this coffee! Read more
They call this dark roast, probably measuring it against the very light roasts of today's third wave coffees. To me it is medium roast, and while it does taste good, I would have preferred it had been in the roaster for much longer. Read more
I've a coffee drinker since my teens. I also lived in a coffee capital: Seattle for 16 years. I won't say I'm a coffee snob ... but I know what I like. I sure to like Indo-Pacific and African beans. Especially dark roasted. In all my years I had never tasted Vietnamese coffee. Figured it was about time. I brewed my first pot Hanoi Peaberry Robusta: Dark Roast with high expectations. My first mistake: high expectations. Coffee tasted flat, no acidic tingles on my tongue, just tasted muddy, with no discernible "notes". Just tasted like mud. Flat. High Priced. Indiscernible-nothingness. But I sure did get a caffein buzz! Worst part? You can't return it. You can't even get an Amazon return/refund. Which I ALWAYS am able to. WAS able to. It seems Amazon has become more stringent with their return policy. In trying to get a refund, I was passed off to another "refund department" and was asked if the package was damaged or dated. No for both. "Sorry. Those are the only conditions I can refund the price of the coffee beans." WHAT???? In ALL my years as an Amazon Prime member this year was a returns turning point—for the bad. Might be time to let my Prime membership lapse & stop using Amazon altogether. Amazon becomes more & more greedy every year. Prime membership increase last year. And this year they want $2.99 more for ad free Amazon Prime Video. So for my exorbitant Prime Membership fee I'm now losing a feature that WAS free & Amazon is making returns harder. Thanks for being concerned about your customers, Amazon! Sorry for the rant ... Coffee still stinks! Read more
Definitely worth a try just to see what robusta beans are all about. I brewed it with an Aeropress, drank it black, and really enjoyed the distinctive flavor. The package says it has twice the caffeine of regular beans, so you might want to consider this before making it your regular brew. I didn't try any of those Vietnamese coffee drinks that use sweetened condensed milk, but did try some of the ground beans on vanilla ice cream and that was really nice. Read more
I first tried Nguyen's "Loyalty" arabica/robusta blend and found it enjoyable for iced coffee but underwhelming for hot. I then found the 100% robusta "True Grit" at my grocery store, however, and completely fell in love with it. Pure robusta beans have a very unique taste and, for me at least, are much much better uncut by arabica. True Grit has a chocolatey taste that's dense and complex, while Hanoi, which I just got here on Amazon, is just straight up good strong coffee of the sort you'd normally drink out of a styrofoam cup. FWIW, I'm full on keto so I drink it black, no sweetener, and it's fantastic. Also, I would not want to discourage anyone from using the phin filter - I got one from this same company and recommend it - but I get my best results from a Hario V60, and have had good results from my Kalita and French Press. The only method I would not recommend is Chemex, since the filters seem to remove some vital something-or-other and accentuate the bitterness a bit too much. In any case, if you're an adventurous coffee drinker, be brave, put away the blends and go for straight robusta. It's great! Read more
I just spent a month in Vietnam motorbiking from north to south. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was stopping at random cafes throughout the country and experiencing my new passion for such a unique type of coffee. At one of the homestays I inquired about the unique brewing process and the host gave me a brewing lesson and also sold the brewing cup and a bag of coffee. The unique taste is from the nuttiness which I was told comes from the Robusta bean. So, after returning to the USA, I ordered this coffee, Nguyen "Hanoi". It absolutely tastes like any other average or better than average arabica beans. There is no hint of the unique nuttiness that is found in coffee in Vietnam. I would love to get an explanation or education about this because maybe I'm missing something. Read more
