Most of you would have heard of luwak coffee – coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. Today, I am trying the Vietnamese equivalent.
I don’t promote this practice of harvesting luwak coffee. In fact I am against this practice as reports of animal abuse and unscrupulous practices come to light as the prices for these coffee soar. And with the pandemic, we should have learnt not to mess with nature. Leave them alone.
Legend Cafe is part of the Trung Nguyen coffee chain and specialises in Vietnam’s traditional style drip coffee. Think of it as the Starbucks Reserve Roastery for Trung Ngyuen. You can have it with or without (condensed) milk, and hot or cold. Hot and black is best.
Trung Nguyen wanted to capture the same craze of luwak coffee but in a more scientific manner – by replicating the digestive process in a factory. So the scientists went to work and created the Legendee coffee. Trung Nguyen was the original pioneer of this process and it has not been duplicated by any other coffee maker – perhaps unncecessary because we wanted the coffee to be coffee.
One would not consider the visit complete until one have sat in a Trung Nguyen coffeehouse and tried the Legendee brewed by the single-cup filters. So I did. The coffee, well, tasted like coffee, a bit more acidic than normal maybe because of the variety of the bean than the process of Legendee. Would not try it again.
And how does it compare to luwak coffee? Well, not the same despite the marketing. Try luwak is very mellow. But there are too much fake luwak around these days so it does not matter anymore.
Nevertheless, it is still a very cool little spot to have high quality coffee with the locals and for buying some local souvenirs for friends back home.
Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe
219 Ly Tu Trong Street Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City 700000 Vietnam
Tel : +84 91 528 99 06
Date Visited : Nov 2016
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