Coffee Making Class
How Vietnamese Coffee Taught Me About Quality
🎬 Sometimes the story keeps writing itself even after it ends – A behind-the-scenes moment is waiting at the end of this post, for The Secret Journey members only.
📍Hoi An, Vietnam
After days of rain in Hoi An, I finally made it to the coffee workshop I'd been wanting to try, just a five-minute walk from my hotel.
I arrived early and immediately knew I'd found a high-quality workshop.
Over the past few days here, I'd come across plenty of coffee shops offering workshops, but most were more in the style of "pay for your coffee and I'll teach you how to make it," which gives you knowledge, sure, but less of an actual workshop experience.
After years of working as a barista, I was incredibly excited to learn how to make coffee that was completely different from what I knew. This was a chance to explore an entire side of the coffee world I'd never been exposed to.
I took a seat at the far end of an unusually long table. "How many people are joining the workshop today?" I asked.
"Twenty," the instructor replied.
A few minutes later, three more people arrived without reservations and were also added to the workshop. They mentioned getting recommendations for this specific workshop, which made me feel confident I'd made the right choice - especially at 350,000 dong, about $13.
The first thing I noticed when I sat down was the music. Not generic pop, but a carefully curated playlist - international music that suited tourists and the workshop's cool atmosphere. How important that detail is.
Just a few days ago, I'd asked ChatGPT why Vietnamese restaurants don't play music unless they're specifically Western-oriented places. It explained that in Vietnamese culture, eating is a task - people eat and leave rather than lingering like we do, where restaurants are entertainment in themselves.
During the workshop, we made five different types of coffee. Yes - five Vietnamese coffees in two hours, which is the fast track to spiking your heart rate.
If you're curious about the recipes - the complete recipe collection is waiting for you in the behind-the-scenes section at the end of this post!
Vietnamese coffee is particularly strong, especially with the sugar and sweetness from condensed milk, so five coffees in two hours is quite a lot 😅 I almost went for a run afterward.
When we started the workshop, the instructor asked us to put on the aprons while sitting on our chairs. Immediately, giggles erupted as we realized these aprons were particularly amusing - they featured images of men and women in sexy lingerie. It was hilarious!
People immediately started taking photos with their cheeky aprons, and all I could think about was what a brilliant idea this was, showing that someone here had thought about the customer experience, about MY experience, and had gone above and beyond what was necessary to add value.
The staff worked efficiently and seamlessly, clearing used cups and providing us with tools for the next coffee. They seemed genuinely happy, laughing among themselves, which was wonderful. When staff are happy, it shows in the entire experience - I learned this from the inside, especially when staff aren't happy.
I know most of you aren’t packing your bags for Vietnam right now, but if you're curious about what’s waiting on the other side of the screen, here’s something I found that might light up a new corner of the world for you.
Leather crafting workshop, coffee making workshop, wood carving workshop, Jewelry workshop, embroidery workshop, knife making workshop, pottery workshop, painting workshop, traditional hat making workshop, perfume blending workshop, cocktail mixing workshop, traditional lantern making workshop (the most popular one!), and even a buffalo riding workshop.
The instructor explained that in the past, people looked for ways to consume important vitamins, so they started incorporating fruits and vegetables into everything, even coffee. This led to avocado coffee, banana coffee, and the particularly popular coconut coffee - where the combination of the two is simply amazing.
We started with basic filter coffee - a full liter takes four hours to prepare. Then we learned about traditional Vietnamese iced coffee - coffee with condensed milk.
We heard explanations about condensed milk and how, in the past when the French ruled Vietnam, they brought milk with them. But the Vietnamese didn't like the taste and smell of cow's milk and didn't feel it was right for their black coffee.
Only later, when they understood that milk provides important vitamins, did they start importing condensed milk - and loved it because it doesn't have that cow taste and smell. The instructor mentioned that Vietnamese babies drink condensed milk constantly to grow big and strong.
We moved on to salt coffee. Beyond adding a pinch of salt, we learned how to froth the coffee to create the foam layer that characterizes Vietnamese coffee.
We heard the fascinating story explaining that salt coffee was born on a boat at sea - when a sailor was stuck on his boat for months after being swept away in a typhoon, he simply added seawater to his coffee.
When he finally returned home, he shared his recipe with everyone, and it became the most popular coffee in Vietnam today.
Then we reached egg coffee. This was the real test for me.
The first time I tried egg coffee in Hanoi wasn't very successful, and I hadn't tried it again since. I'd been waiting for this workshop to see how it's properly made and to re-examine the taste.
I was so surprised to discover that egg coffee is truly an art form - even a crash course in pastry making. The first step was separating the yolk from the white; we only used the yolk. We added vanilla extract, rice water, honey, and condensed milk, then whipped it for five minutes until it became a smooth, creamy texture. The vanilla smell was incredible.
We put a little coffee in a cup, topped it with the cream we'd made, sprinkled chocolate powder on top, and placed the cup in a bowl of hot water to cook the egg and ensure the coffee stayed warm.
The instructor explained that this coffee is traditionally eaten slowly with a spoon - it's more of a dessert that lines your stomach than coffee you drink quickly.
This time - it was amazing! It was absolutely delicious, sweet and comforting. Now I understood what real egg coffee is, and I understood the difference from that first coffee I'd tried. It simply wasn't the same product, despite both being under the same name.
I sat there, holding the warm cup in my hands and feeling the creamy taste melt in my mouth, thinking about how many small details had made this workshop so special. It was the combination of all the little things, and most importantly - the time and attention invested in each cup.
What started as a coffee workshop became a journey of understanding what makes an experience truly quality. It's about caring, about process, about understanding that behind every good thing is someone who invested thought and heart.
That egg coffee taught me that sometimes it's worth giving second chances to things that didn't work out the first time. Maybe the problem wasn't the idea itself, but how it was executed. And maybe that's true not just for coffee, but for many other things in life.
As I left the workshop, full of caffeine and joy, I thought about how many times in my life I'd dismissed things after one unsuccessful experience. And how many good things I might have missed because of that.
This video was captured with my Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses – my favorite way to share the world through my eyes and take you along for the ride.
If you're curious about them, here's the exact model I use.
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