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We need to focus more

on bringing out the best in

people .

research and development in coffee cultivation and process-
ing in Vietnam, also building a community of people (cof-
fee business owners, coffee specialists, barista etc.) who
share the same ideas and principles in specialty coffee, so
it is never just about money. And it’s not short term either,
we’d like to see it in 5 and 10 years term, or more,” says
Dung. In fact, Workshop holds annual New Crop Celebra-
tion, where coffee producers and farmers gather together
to meet customers, introduce new crop, drink coffee and
participate in some small competitions, it is like a New Year
party but for coffee. Moreover, Workshop provides basic
barista classes, cupping classes and brewing classes just for
customers, where they tell everything about coffee from
bean to cup plus coffee history to teach students how to
appreciate coffee even more.
Talking about their plans, Nguyen Tuan Dung says
that, they would love to open a new shop, but most im-
portantly, they need to work even closer with coffee pro-
“We let our customers try new things, the food and drinks ducers, investing in their own people for personal develop-
that we serve reflects creative lifestyle of our customers; they are ment and encourage baristas to compete to improve
willing to try something different from Vietnamese food and general skills. “If you want to earn a lot of money, don’t do
coffee that they are used to drink,” says Dung, “But of course, It coffee.” says Dung, “We need to focus more on bringing
is hard for local people to change their coffee drinking habits as out the best in people and improve them personally.”
they tend to stick to what they are already used to, which is tra- As the Workshop is the first specialty coffee place in
ditional coffee; we aim for the customers who never had coffee Vietnam it also took a leading role in this country to pro-
or good coffee before, trying to build a new habit.” mote good coffee and educate customers what coffee can
Every day Workshop uses at least 7 kg of beans and during be, how it can taste .Workshop created this atmosphere not
the weekend it is much more, of course, as the coffee shop gets only for people to work but also to gather and celebrate
pretty packed; every month they also roast 210 kg of coffee and coffee culture by creating a whole community.
75%-85% of it is domestic, vietnamese coffee. “At least
60% of our turnover is from coffee”, shares Dung, “We
try to keep same prices for coffee for the last 3 years, even
though we have high rent, but we do not want to rip
customer, instead we want to sell more cups of coffee and
be more productive than to raise prices for one cup.”
“In Vietnam specialty coffee scene we have people
who are interested in improving coffee culture and
people who seek commercial success; the thing is we all
need to balance between quality and business, it is not
possible to contribute anything when you are interested
only in quality but have no commercial success. We try
to build successful specialty coffee shop in order to build
a foundation, on that foundation we will able to do further

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