Meet Son: The Farmer Who Helped Us Find Our Path
Son Ngyuen Van (Son Pacamara) is renowned for being the most forward-thinking coffee producer in Vietnam. As one of the first Vietnamese farmers to grow ‘speciality’ coffee, he is now applying his immense knowledge of the industry to a country dominated by lower grade beans and mass production.
Son Nguyen Van
Vietnam’s Original Speciality Coffee Producer
Son has made the bold leap to focus less on harvesting coffee beans and more on forging a long-term strategy for Vietnamese speciality coffee through education. This investment has paid off as he is now the leading teacher of speciality coffee and known throughout Vietnam for his pioneering spirit. Having succeeded in producing top class coffee beans, he has taken the path to share his knowledge with others and is now leading the only speciality coffee school in the country - that we know of.
“His generous reputation is known across all of Vietnam”
Sharing knowledge with others and tourists is nguyen-nguyen (pronounced ‘win’). Teaching for free, Son takes on students from many different walks of life who travel long distances to have the privilege to study at his school. Educating them about coffee from from seed to cup, his students get practical lessons about how the speciality coffee industry works and often go on to use these insights to help them in their own projects. In return, Son gets valuable labour for his farm as well as time to work on his ambitions for Vietnam’s coffee industry.
“I just want to prove to the world that Vietnamese coffee is not that bad. We have the ability to produce speciality coffee too”
- Son Nguyen Van
Son now does not export his coffee, we recently learned, as he roasts beans himself and sell them to the emerging speciality coffee cafes in Vietnam. Even at a whopping $16 per KG (that’s what we pay) it makes more sense for him to roast himself and sell to Vietnamese businesses, thus keeping the value of his work within Vietnam. However, as we have supported him and been appreciative from the beginning of our relationship, Uplands Roast has the only supply of these famous beans outside of Vietnam.
We met Son back in 2017 when we started to learn about coffee in Vietnam. Having visited many farms (only 2 were ‘speciality’), Son was by far the most warming, interesting and open to work on our project. To Uplands Roast, attitude and energy from farmers is extremely important and we were not going to work with any ‘bad vibes’. Life is too short. How lucky we were.
What a Legend!
The Pioneer for Vietnam’s Speciality Coffee Industry
Son Pacamara coffee is our original coffee bean import and has been with us from the start of our journey as a business. Son has taught us significant amounts about coffee, his processes, Vietnam and how to engage the local community for wider benefit. We admire his work and have the utmost respect for it, as do all in Vietnam who are grateful for his contributions to their culture and taste buds.
