The previous year had been difficult for coffee farmers in parts of Vietnam, with unusual weather conditions affecting harvests in several growing regions. Despite that, the new beans we sampled were excellent.
We started by tasting samples from the new harvest, brewed by The Workshop's baristas and, at times, by the farmers themselves, who appeared to enjoy the event at least as much as the visitors. The celebration was not only about the coffee, but also about the people whose work had produced it.
There was also a public cupping, which I attended together with a few fellow coffee lovers. We tasted five different coffees from Vietnam, ranging from an excellent Catimor, my personal favourite that day, to a Red Bourbon.
Bourbon is one of the old Arabica lineages and has become relatively uncommon compared with the more productive varieties that dominate modern coffee farming. The Red Bourbon we tasted had a flavour profile I found particularly interesting, and it was one of those coffees that made me want to learn considerably more about individual varieties instead of simply talking about Arabica and Robusta as though each were a single flavour.
Looking back, events like this were one of the reasons my coffee adventure in Vietnam became much more interesting than simply visiting good cafés. They brought together farmers, roasters, baristas and customers and gave me a chance to taste how differently coffee grown within the same country could turn out.