Luong Thi Ngoc Tram and Phan Hong Phong at the Khe Sanh Arabica coffee garden.

Pun Coffee is honoured to have just been ranked 5th on the world specialty coffee rankings by the International Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), an achievement that Vietnamese coffee has not attained before.

Coming to Huong Hoa District, Quang Tri province, it is easy to see the immense green colour of Arabica coffee gardens. Arabica coffee trees are not only grown in Khe Sanh Valley, but also from Lang Vay to Ta Con, mostly in Huong Phung.

Difficult journey to recover the reputation of Khe Sanh coffee

In the early 20th century, when the French came to Khe Sanh, they saw the strength of this land with coffee trees and built plantations to grow coffee. Since then, Khe Sanh has been known to the world for its famous coffee products.

The white flowers of Khe Sanh Arabica coffee

Over time, Huong Hoa has become one of the largest coffee growing areas in the central region. In 2012 and 2013, the export value of each Khe Sanh coffee crop reached 25 million USD.

However, unexpectedly, in the long period that followed, the Khe Sanh arabica coffee brand has been almost absent from the market due to many different factors.

The washed coffee is placed into a plastic bag for fermentation.

Unable to let the name of a famous drink fade away, in 2019, husband and wife Luong Thi Ngoc Tram and Phan Hong Phong were determined to rebuild the quality of Khe Sanh arabica coffee with the new Pun Coffee brand, with the mindset of making clean and high-quality coffee so that customers can change their coffee consumption habits.

They did not choose to directly grow coffee, but instead linked up with the transfer of advanced science and technology to gradually change people's traditional coffee growing habits while committing to purchasing products at the most reasonable prices.

The journey to improve the quality of Khe Sanh coffee with the Pun Coffee brand is always arduous, but all difficulties eventually pass. Through a seminar in 2020, they met two leading coffee experts in Vietnam: Le Trung Hung and Nguyen Tan Vinh.

At that time, expert Le Trung Hung mobilised the Buon Me Thuot Coffee Association along with customer partners and friends to support specialty coffee processing training classes for small farmers and processors in the Huong Hoa District.

With the knowledge gained after the classes and the tireless journey of making specialty coffee, Pun Coffee finally succeeded, bringing the quality of Khe Sanh arabica coffee processed by Pun Coffee to the top of the list for Vietnamese specialty coffee.

After four consecutive years of participating in the competition, Pun Coffee has been awarded the first position three times and the third position twice in Vietnamese specialty coffee.

Luong Thi Ngoc Tram explained that Pun in the Pun Coffee brand does not refer to the name of the land where they established their business. In Van Kieu language, Pun means intoxicated with the fragrance of the earth, the fragrance given by heaven.

Therefore, Pun Coffee also accepts the mission of connecting with the community, not only bringing consumers a simple cup of coffee but also imbuing it with the scent of the land of Khe Sanh and bringing hope to farmers.

Path to become the world's fifth-ranked specialty coffee

Coffee drying process in the processing area at Pun Hill

To become a world specialty coffee, they began planning and managing the raw material areas associated with Pun Coffee brand. Coffee farmers in the region play a decisive role in 35% of the quality of the entire coffee chain, so re-planning of raw material areas is a priority. The entire raw material area is converted from traditional agriculture to sustainable farming, eliminating 90% of chemicals in farming, optimising the use of biologically derived care materials such as biofertilisers from coffee husks and agricultural waste, managing weeds instead of suppressing them.

They cooperated with the Global Coffee Platform (GCP) to provide in-depth technical training on coffee trees to farmers. This is the most difficult stage in the coffee processing chain.

When the ripe fruit is harvested, processing techniques are extremely important. Because this is a specialty coffee line, when processing, it is necessary to push the unique aroma of Khe Sanh arabica coffee to the highest level, creating an unmistakable mark for the flavour of Khe Sanh coffee, Quang Tri. Khe Sanh Arabica coffee is spicy with notes of mint, ginger, cinnamon, and coriander; tropical fruit scent of jackfruit, guava, banana, mango, passion fruit, and pineapple; sour taste of orange, lemon, apricot, and plum; along with hints of raspberry, chocolate, herbs, and wine.

After continuous efforts, Pun Coffee was honoured to be ranked fifth in the world specialty coffee rankings by the International Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) in 2023, which Vietnamese coffee had not achieved before. The arabica coffee region from Khe Sanh, Quang Tri, attained the ranking with a score of 87.67/100.

Pun Coffee is not only to elevate the product but also change the position of the Khe Sanh Arabica coffee brand on the specialty coffee map of Vietnam and the whole world.

Pun Coffee has built different strategies to impact the economic and social life of linked groups of farming households, especially vulnerable farming households of the Van Kieu ethnic minority.

Model of biodiversity coffee forest garden by Ngoc Tram.

Pun Coffee always strives to operate and provide practical support to farmer groups such as providing high quality coffee seedlings and supporting shade trees and forest trees to jointly implement the project of bringing forests to coffee gardens, developing coffee areas into specialty raw material areas, thereby creating regular jobs for on-site workers. It also strives to help train children of ethnic minorities to learn vocational skills and entrepreneurship orientation. Although these supports are small, they are very meaningful.