Year of the Dog commences February 2018. It is the eleventh year in a 12 year cycle of the Lunar year cycles. Those born in the year of the dog are seen to be honest and loyal. Their years are 1922, 1934, 1946,1958,1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, and this year!

Here are pictures of Trigger our Brown Dog! its your year!

Dogs together are pack animals and they may have some problems trying to be top dog particularly where there is a bone involved.

Dogs are well grounded and the sign for 2018 is represented by two mountains either side by side or one beyond the other. So it’s the year of the mountain dog and if you are a dog you may be a wild mountain dog experiencing some barriers this year. Wise dogs will see a way through to remove the barriers to see a wide open road ahead.

For all dogs a well planned year this year will lead on to a beneficial year in 2019 the year of the Pig.

The first day of Brown dog year is February 4 with the celebration of lunar new year on Feb 16th, its brown dog as this year is an Earth dog year. The portents are good for exhausting but happy, frustrating but cheerful, rested and tired and occasionally dull.

Here is Trigger looking to the future

This is why we need to plan and it’s a good time to focus on health eating, sports and shedding bad habits.

For Rats its looking good, Ox’s it good but do be precautious, Tigers it’s a great year for you, Rabbits not good not bad but be careful, Dragons not especially good year and be cautious with travel, Horses and Goats enjoy your selves, Monkeys it’s a good year for hard work, Roosters now it the time to make good decisions in a good year, and Pigs it’s a year of fulfillment leading up to your year next year.

Viet-Coffee celebrates the new year with a special offer to all our customers – if you mention it’s the year of the Dog in your order during the celebration time of lunar New Year you will get 2 aluminum espresso sized Phin with your order(Valued at $7)

You must mention that it’s the Year of the Dog in your order or no Phin. We also have special pricing on some of our Indochine Dark close to code ground coffee at 50% off buy it here for $4.80 a pack

You may not know but we have a range of suppliers of Vietnamese coffee with some almost competing head to head in style and flavour and we have just put our Metrang MC1 Coffee on Special – this is a similar in style to the Arabica Robusta Blend as the Trung Nguyen Creative (Sang Tao) 2.

Metrang’s production facilities are second to none and they are scrupulous in their attention to keeping all parts of their coffee production green and clean.

We’ve been there and seen the masks and gloves on when they are working with the product.

Our current special price for Metrang puts it at a significant price advantage to the Creative range.

Equivalent package size 2 x 250g Creative 2 is $12.50 vS Metrang 1 at $10.99, and its especially good buying in the bulk pack (2.5kg coffee including shipping) at $55.99-

We only have a carton at this special price.

I love the language used by Metrang to Market their super clean coffee

About the meaning of the MC brand: : the letter M (Em) stands for Me Trang, letter C stands for Coffee. MC stands for Clean too. MC Coffee is manufactured on fully self-contained chains, with the advice and supervision of scientists.

We are committed: The material perfectly clean, no pesticide residue or plant protections.

The product does not contain impurities or preservatives.

With the gently scent, coffee MC 1 is the mildest combination between the bitter taste of Robusta and the slightly sour taste of Arabica.

Coffee’s caffeine content is higher than 1.0%”

We hope you will love the coffee when you try it – buy a pack for $10.99 with your next order or make your next order a bulk pack $55.99

And now for something completely different.

We have accepted a very small batch of a unique Guatemalan coffee beans and what a back story to this coffee.

So the story goes Jesuits brought coffee plants to Guatemala in the 1760’s but exports did not really take off with coffee imports from Cuba and Trinidad filling local need and transport costs being a big barrier to export . The main export in the early 1800’s was Indigo dye but problems with locusts, the Napoleonic wars and competition from Venezuela and the East Indies drove prices down. Coffee was one of 40  agricultural products considered to take on the export mantle.

The batch we have  is single origin ,single estate coffee from the Acetango Valley. The Acetango region in Guatemala is one of 8 recognised coffee growing regions in Guatemala. The Valley sits at an altitude of 2000 meters with stunning views.

The varietals in this batch  are heirloom varieties of Arabica with Bourbon 60% and Cattura 40%  

The Acetango Valley, known as Acetango Volcano Valley it is so named due to its frequently erupting volcano creating rich mineralised soils perfect for coffee cultivation.

Volcanic soils have a good structure and texture for coffee growth as they often contain vesicles, which make them porous and ideal for retaining water. As the roots of coffee trees have a high oxygen demand so good drainage is essential and volcanic soils are ideal for coffee production.

Guatemalan coffee is high altitude and grown under grevilleas and Ingas. Ingas are a nitrogen fixing tree and known as the ice cream bean tree.

The forest created is a lush refuge for local and migratory birds and the climate is seasonal with temperate gusts from the Pacific Ocean keeping frost at bay and creating the ideal amount of humidity.

The seasonal climate encourages flowering and later allows for sun drying of the beans. The under-story of coffee under the lush trees allows the beans to mature slowly, improving the attributes of body and acidity in the cup.

Acatenango Valley's Cup Characteristics

A marked acidity, fragrant aroma, balanced body  and clean, lingering finish.

CAfetoland was established over 60 years ago and over now over 2 generations with its plantation situated in Acetango, Chimaltenar. The founder Veronica Lantan is a leader in helping women being employed in the coffee industry

Guatemala is known for its specialty coffees with sweet flavoured nuances unique to the country. What makes it so unique is that the climate is so diverse with lots of high altitude farms, consistent rainfall and a good understanding and practice of coffee technology.

Vietnamese Coffee - it’s the Beans, it’s the roast, it’s the brew.


We at Viet-coffee continue to enjoy the beans the roast and the brew. Its been a bit cold to have Caphe sua da so we’ve skipped the Da for a bit but we do have another special offer for you.


Our EMC2 Robusta is typically Vietnamese in the beans being Robusta with almost twice the caffeine of Arabica, its roast is a long and slow butter roast that add to the chocolate fruit and nuts tones and the phin drip brew gives a syrupy strong liquor just ideal to be matched with Longevity Milk.

I love this little article I found on the internet about Vietnamese coffee and how to make and enjoy it.

Say Keng Lee, Knowledge Adventurer & Technology Explorer in Strategy, Change & Future-Focus I actually wrote this piece about Vietnam's uniquely famous coffee drink as part of my English coaching of Vietnamese professionals, so as to enable them to articulate eloquently about it, especially to foreign principals.

To me, it serves as a good response to your question.

"Good Evening:Ladies & Gentlemen. Distinguished Guests.

My name is S K, and I am here today to introduce you to Vietnam’s famous coffee drink.

It’s known locally as “caphe sua da pha phin”.

The "phin" is the Vietnamese name for the decanter, a quirky and yet simple Vietnamese coffee filtering contraption, functioning as a single-serve filter, which instills a slow-drip process of on-the-spot, right-in-your-face coffee brewing.

Translated into English, it's basically rich coffee mixed with sweet condensed milk and cool ice cubes, decanter style. The decanter is actually a four-piece all-stainless-steel-or aluminum) combo

A spoonful of freshly-ground extra-bold roast-blend coffee is first poured in the decanter, which sits nicely on the rim of a short glass. Boiling water is added until it slowly brews, and filters slowly into the short glass, which already contains a healthy dollop of condensed milk.

By the way, inside the decanter there is some sort of small-round-thin metal piece, which actually functions as a gravity-pull self-pressing device, thus inducing the slow-drip, facilitated by the small weight of the boiling water at the beginning stage.

The entire process generally takes a few minutes. It’s believed that the slower the drip, with one tiny drop at a time, roughly about one drop per second, the better it tastes.

When the steady dripping finishes its natural course, the liquid coffee then mixes with the condensed milk in the short glass below. One can easily smell the fragrance of the rich coffee.

The coffee and condensed milk mixture is then stirred. Buy your 3 pack of Longevity Milk here for $7.50

The combinatory mix is then poured into a tall glass, already filled with ice cubes to the brim, which originally comes with a long and slender tea spoon stuck in position. The spoon is also used in the stirring function.

Again with the aid of the given tea spoon, one just pulls it up and pushes it down through the ice cubes in the tall glass containing the mix, like a piston in an engine.

Moving the spoon in a piston-like fashion, the final mix of sweetness and bitterness is ready for enjoyment.

The final additional human gesture ostensibly gives one the psychic satisfaction of seeing a simple job being done well.

You then take one small sip at a time, either using the given spoon or the accompanying straw. Taking small sips, and not big gulps, as with other type of coffee drinks, I am sure this practice definitely has something to do with influence from the French colonialists, who apparently introduced coffee drinking into the country during the 18th century.

The first sip will invariably brain you up, as well as relax your mood. This is the mystique of the coffee drink.

I am not a coffee connoisseur, but I reckon it's the synergistic confabulation of the sweetness of the condensed milk, the potent brew of the rich roast-blend coffee, and the cool refreshing kick of the ice cubes, which makes "caphe sua da pha phin" a quintessential coffee drink, now known around the world, including Singapore.

To help you on your way to this decadent pleasure we have a special on the EMC2 robusta – there are only 2 cartons at this price – single 500g packs $5.99 or further discounts on shipping with the BX1 and Bulk packs and 5 kg pack (Free Aluminium phin with every order remember to ask for it in your order notes)


Brews well with its coarser grind in Phin, drip, French press, cold brew or chemex.

Be generous with the serve with 20g or at least 1 tablespoon per cup to get that syrupy liquor..

Buy 500g soft pack EMC2 Robusta here $5.99

Buy 500g x 5 soft pack EMC2 Robusta with shipping here $38.95

Buy 500g x 9 soft pack EMC2 Robusta with shipping here $63.91

Buy 250g x 5 soft pack Trung Nguyen House Blend with shipping here $49.99

The State of the Global Coffee Trade from the International Coffee Organisation

The latest facts and figures about the global coffee trade from the International Coffee Organization. 

Latest update: 30 November 2016

9.13 million bags

World coffee exports amounted to 9.13 million bags in October 2016, compared with 9.31 million bags in October 2015. (Goes to show if you do the maths 12 x months and add it up that its a bit seasonal - in fact with coffee grown both in the north and south hemispheres there are two seasons)

71.93 million bags of Arabica

In the twelve months ending October 2016, exports of Arabica totalled 71.93 million bags compared to 69.21 million bags last year (Arabica production up to meet ongoing demand for bean to cup sales across the world - Difference in styles between Robusta and Arabica still affecting sales of Robusta as Robusta stilll getting a bad rap. However we know at Viet-coffee that good quality robusta enables us to get a great flavousome coffee at a bargain price)
 

40.46 million bags of Robusta

In the twelve months ending October 2016, Robusta exports amounted to 40.46 million bags compared to 43.81 million bags last year. (Quite a big drop here - instant coffee sales still growing, which is where most Robusta ends up. The data is not finely granulated enough for us to tell if its the lower quality that is selling less or?)

The coffee market ended 2015/16 in deficit for the second consecutive year, but stocks accumulated in 2012/13 and 2013/14 have allowed the market to remain well supplied.
Data as at 14 October 2016 - next update January 2017 (this deficit in production will eventually lead to problems of supply as with increasing numbers of significant climate events making production less reliable through drought and temperature problems Robusta may get to be king! There is no comment on the coffee stockpile but we have seen steady pricing so one may assume that the accumulated stock is being released steadily to keep the price stable.)

-3.3 million 60kg bags

Estimated deficit between production and consumption in 2015/16

Data as at 14 October 2016 - next update January 2017

148 million

Estimated number of 60 kg bags of coffee produced in 2015/16

+0.9%

Estimated increase in global coffee production in 2015/16 compared to 2014/15

0.7%

Estimated change in global production of Arabica coffees in 2015/16 compared to previous coffee year

1.3%

Estimated increase in global production of Robusta coffees in 2015/16 compared to previous coffee year (this contradicts the reduction in exports but this may be accounted for by  increased local consumption in coffee producing areas)

Data as at 14 October 2016 - next update January 2017

151.3 million

Estimated number of 60 kg bags of coffee consumed in coffee year 2015/16 (Oct. 2015 to Sep. 2016)

1.3%

Average annual growth rate in global coffee consumption since coffee year 2012/13 (- may sound percentage wise not very large but its a lot of cups of coffee!! and with no large increases in production associated with reduction in the coffee stockpile we may have a bumpy ride over the upcoming years a bit like the severe frost in Brazil in 1975 and the Brazil  drought in 2014 - Bad weather = high coffee prices)

However our prices effectively remain the same - grab a Vietnamese coffee bargain today from Viet-coffee.com.au.