Did Germany Invent Vietnamese Coffee?

The fascinating and unexpected history behind Vietnamese coffee, a cultural icon that was saved by an unlikely hero: Communist East Germany. We dive deep into this untold story that brought together two nations and transformed the coffee industry forever.
We go back in time as we explore the roots of Vietnamese coffee during French colonial rule, the devastating impact of the Vietnam War, and the surprising role East Germany played in revitalizing Vietnam's coffee industry. You'll learn how a shared love for coffee and political alliances led to one of the most ambitious foreign collaborations in history.
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[@mynameisandong]

Who‘s pumped for some food history? It‘s been a while 🥳🤩

[@alysoffoxdale]

Hey, you forgot to pin your comment...meanwhile, most of the comments are already jumping with joy to see food history here again without even scrolling down enough to see yours! :)

[@ThingsWeSaidToday]

Me!!! I am! Wonderful video, I always love your food history forays!

[@fabiancbarrio]

Your channel is a GEM

[@pseenazloy6409]

Не пропадай, we need you.

[@MohammedGamal87]

Meeeeeee

[@joyjacobus]

This was so great, just came back from Vietnam and the coffee culture there is huge! Never thought Germany had a contribution, so much interesting facts! The more you know...

[@MrHodoAstartes]

East Germany actually had several Vietnam-themed postal stamps as part of an aid program between 1965 and 1979. The program was called "Unbesiegbares Vietnam", invincible Vietnam and the stamps showed the Vietnamese as brave revolutionaries. Buying those stamps meant a donation to the country, with the amount printed onto the stamp. There was a very deep connection to their Socialist brothers and coffee source. However, a great number of Vietnamese refugees from the South would be rescued from drifting in the Pacific and taken in by West Germany. So which part of one divided country you were from determined which part of another divided country would help you.

[@liliammills]

so great, youtubeeem.com/6ZbD8H1G2gi admit I never heard of vietnamese coffee before. But I will

[@alexanderfo3886]

One wouldn't expect two countries with no obvious link to have any, and most Germans wouldn't know either, but here we are. There's that, and a common love for Maggi and kohlrabi.

[@n_other_1604]

The coffee filter was invented in east Germany... Saxony has a forgotten coffee culture as long & rich as Vienna, Italy, France & so on.

[@cudanmang_theog]

LandBack for the indigenous Montagnard peoples of Vietnam and STOP Vietnamese settler colonialism and global capitalism, STOP the coffee industry in Vietnam and Brazil NOW

[@phidesudesu]

Never thought a guy from Germany would be teaching me about my own ancestors LMAO

[@reggievonramstein]

Wait it gets better, a Russian guy from Germany, teaching a Vietnamese about his country. And I’m a French guy commenting…😅

[@phidesudesu]

@@reggievonramstein we love diversity indeed

[@Booklover138]

But it's a white-washed version of history lmao. He specifically skirted over the French part of coffee introduction into Vietnam. He said that coffee were grown by small time farmers for themselves and to make extra cash, but the reality is that all the coffee plantation at the time were owned by French colonists and produced for the European market. Vietnamese traditionally drank tea, which was why coffee never caught on until the early 2000s' urbanization among college kids and office workers. The French colonists were the plantation owners who were forced to hand over the land and kicked out in 1954, not 1945. During the Vietnam-American war, the coffee plantations never took off again because the region that grew coffee in Vietnam, the central highland, was part of the Ho Chi Minh trail and was being constantly bombed by the US during the war. After 1975, there were attempts to resurrect the coffee farming, just in the hands of coop instead of French colonists, but the production could not be shipped to the market in Europe and NA because Vietnam was under US sanction until 1995. In short, he purposely moved the timeline around and skirted over the French's role specifically to downplay the colonial ownership of the coffee plantations back before 1954 and to blame the current government for "taking the plantations away from those poor plantation owners", who were, in fact, French and quite well-known for their abuse of Vietnamese workers at the time.

[@reggievonramstein]

@@Booklover138 that’s all true, but the very basic storyline given in the video is quite intricate to start with. Besides this Ho Chi Min was not quite the angel he is portaient by the left either, the editorial choice to overlook that whole period is better if you just want to tell the coffee story while avoiding the old post-colonial/communist fight.

[@Booklover138]

@@reggievonramstein Ho Chi Minh was our country's revolutionary leader, so dont insult him. Dont care which political spectrum you're in. He had nothing to do with coffee's initial lukewarm reception among the Vietnamese population, which, contrary to this video, had more to do with the French being the owners of the coffee plantations and Vietnam being a historically tea country. The history in this video is like completely wrong, doesnt get even a single thing right. Not even the fact that Vietnam was historically a tea country. It would only seem "intricate" to people who know nothing about Vietnamese culture and history, nor any knowledge of the French colonial history.

[@testdasi]

I thought it's very funny that East Germany 50-50 mix was kinda similar to what the Vietnamese commoners were drinking back in the 90s. The Vietnamese 50-50 is 50% coffee and 50% roasted corn (and sorghum) - I was told that rice was actually cheaper as a filler but its being a staple in Vietnam means people can easily tell the flavour apart so corn then. 😅

[@tongnguyenthien9057]

I can't, really 🤣 The only noticeable difference is the corn blend is significantly less sour (which I don't hate but don't like either)

[@duongtieuta223]

Some said cheap places still sell that mix in vietnam these days 😂 Have to admit that it is really hard to tell it and the common robusta a part. People just too accustomed to the “strong” mix that anything less bitter like arabica mix be deemed lesser quality lol I personally cant stand the arabica coffee though even knowing all of these. Espresso shots taste like instant powdered coffee, cappuccino and latte seems to be the coffee flavored milk and iced americano is just like bland bitter water 😂

[@danhobart4009]

@@duongtieuta223 You sound the same as those fillipino's that defend their cuisine...

[@cudanmang_theog]

LandBack for the indigenous Montagnard peoples of Vietnam, LandBack for the indigenous Cham people of Central Vietnam, LandBack for the indigenous Hmong people in Northern Vietnam

[@yoshilovesyoshi]

@@duongtieuta223 I'm a barrista at a coffee shop, and I can confirm a latte is coffee flavored milk, no matter how you look at it. A common latte is 2 shots of espresso(about 40 mL each, so around 75-90 mL of coffee) to about 14 oz(~420mL) of steamed milk, 20% of which is literally foam.

[@johnnychen9897]

It brings me joy to know that Bauhaus graphic design was still going strong in the GDR, those old packagings are beautiful!

[@vincentperratore4395]

Why?

[@st0ox]

​@@vincentperratore4395 because Mies Van der Rohe

[@johnnychen9897]

​@@vincentperratore4395 the Bauhaus school was established in the Weimar years in former East Germany, it was a hugely influential movement in western Europe, but after WWII, the abstract, heavily stylized forms were rejected by the USSR under the stalinist regime, because they were associated with the west and capitalism. Socialist Realism became the most widely accepted visual style for communist nations. (this is still the case in North Korea today) This shift in preferred graphic style in USSR was pretty interesting because pre-stalinist Russia actually developed their own brand of abstract, stylized visual style called "Constructivism". Constructivism had a strong following in the post-revolution Russia during the early 1900's because it was seen as a break from the visual norm of the Tsarist regime, therefore was closely associated the communist revolution in Russia, so much so that Lenin's tomb was built in this style.

[@tristanwegner]

Not just Germany, but specifically EASTERN Germany. My parents actually told me that despite not earning much in Eastern Germany, since rent and food was cheap, and there was often nothing attractive available to spend their remaining money on. The flipside of capitalism. So they actually indulged in coffee, although it was roughly 10 times more expensive in ratio to the income than today. Also for a time you could study coffee production at university in Eastern Germany on a high level.

[@gunterxvoices4101]

Yeah, that was the thing. The easy access to exotic things like coffee and chocolate was so easy in the West because they were able to steal it from everyone else. Life wasn't perfect in the East, but at least there weren't slave society to keep a small upper class happy😅

[@bobdollaz3391]

The DDR was exactly that, a slave state with an elite class!

[@wheresmyeyebrow1608]

@@gunterxvoices4101 Well...they were still that...work and hierachy didn't go away lmao

[@gunterxvoices4101]

@@wheresmyeyebrow1608 I mean, the Junkers weren't in control of the government anymore. Fuck the Noble class and fuck the Nazis.

[@user-rh3pe7um8d]

@@gunterxvoices4101 What? You were literally shot at if you tried to leave and could be sent to forced labor camps. That's actual slavery. While the political elites enjoyed a life of luxury, the average worker had to make due with poor living standards. Socialism is much worse than Capitalism.

[@ducanhbui8471]

Religious drinker of Vietnamese coffee here. Excellent historical video as always, but allow me to add on some context: The majority of Vietnam's "coffee industry" in the French Colonial Era was not produced by local farmers, but rather in massive French-owned plantations that rely heavily on low-skilled, indentured colonial labor. The living & working condition in those places were so horrible, that alongside peppers & rubber, coffee would be known as "the tree fertilized by Vietnamese blood". And the reason why coffee production plummeted, I mean, beside the obvious decades long war? As it turn out, most of the land suitable for coffee was too far from population centers and their related infrastructure (e.g: hospitals, schools...) and factor in the massive development & maintenance costs would make coffee unprofitable. So, then why did the French not think of it, and why did their coffee export brought them so much money? The reason is simple: The colonial workers were not expected to settle down in those areas. They're sent there to grow money tree for their masters, and would either wisen up and (attempt to) leave, or die. So the reason for Vietnamese coffee's period of decline is less "communist can't grow coffee" but more "without massive exploitation and human cruelty, colonialism-style coffee industry is impossible"

[@ieptranphuc7167]

Great point, thanks!

[@littlegreenclementine]

I wish I could boost your reply even more than just one like! other people need to see this one similarly I'd wager that East Germany's limited ability to secure coffee supply is... drumroll... also due to imperialism, as coffee is a tropical crop that doesn't grow well in north america or europe... well, it just so happens that the targets of western imperialism (and the horrible labor conditions and exploitation) are tropical countries. the prevalence of a lack of fair trade coffee is still a modern day issue, because imperialism as a system has adapted but is still in place. thanks, capitalism.

[@Fridelain]

So what you are saying is the communists weren't capable of building basic infrastructure near the money making region. Gotcha.

[@TheNurseBetty0]

I swear that Vietnamese coffee culture and Greek coffee culture mixed in South Australia to make Farmers Union Iced Coffee, which tastes essentially like a Vietnamese coffee with milk. we love it so much here, that in 2008-9 it outsold Coca-Cola by 3:1 (they now own a milk drink company which is not as popular). For many, it is too sweet, but its the drink of choice for us, and one day I will find a way to get James Hoffman to try it just to see his expression.

[@TamarLitvot]

Do that!

[@nameless_moon]

Vietnam do have milk coffee tho. And it is popular, too. I wonder if these 2 type of coffee have any relation...

[@phunk8607]

yeahhh now i can see it... Also try Boss Vanilla coffee similar to VN coffee

[@toaninh9120]

As a local Vietnamese, I did NOT know about this. Now I know who to thanks for my daily anxiety juice. Thanks Andong. Oh beside, you really should try Vietnamese egg coffee sometimes, it's beyond delicious!

[@DoCatTuong753]

there are absolutely NO document or news about this in Vietnam =.=

[@tovarishsus]

Đông Đức tài trợ cho Việt Nam , Đông Đức sụp đổ , không phải chia 50% sản lượng cho Đông Đức . adu vip

[@prozbinh9858]

@@tovarishsus ngon :))))))))))))))

[@ranjanbiswas3233]

@@DoCatTuong753 Because East Germany doesn't exist

[@lenn939]

Is the egg raw? I’m kind of intrigued but eating raw eggs always comes with a slight health risk so I’m not sure it’s something that’s good to have as your daily coffee

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Not only that, Vietnam was also the biggest source for guest workers in the GDR. And condensed milk in coffee is also popular.

[@lenn939]

There are still a lot of people with a Vietnamese migration background going back to that time in Germany. Many have moved to the West since reunification but they also heavily cluster around Berlin.

[@LorenzoSpolaor]

Now THAT'S my boy Andong, the one I always loved. Lots of background research, great infos, neatly presented and truly enjoyable docu-style contents. Thanks for this interesting chapter of food history!

[@liliammills]

vietnamese youtubeeem.com/QXBAMPQOgMZ deep dives connecting history and culture back in your food vi

[@poisonivypornstar2268]

郭富城算童顏，劉德華再畫個老妝還算無違和。 youtubeeem.com/FVI7OJmmaHB 人家制毒都卖国外赚外汇，😂😂😂这缉毒太悬浮了😂😂😂

[@unserkatzenland8884]

The video is greatly biased towards Capitalism being better than Socialism, and didnt address the horrible human costs of the French plantations in Indochina for some reasons, otherwise, its a good video.

[@cudanmang_theog]

​@@unserkatzenland8884 Franco-Vietnamese settler colonialism and the destruction of indigenous Montagnard peoples who earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia

[@cudanmang_theog]

​@@unserkatzenland8884 indigenous resistance against French colonialism: Jarai revolt 1887-1897, Mnong revolt 1894-1902 Rhade mutiny 1920 N'trang Lon revolt 1912-1935 Indigenous resistance against Vietnamese-US colonialism: Y Bham Noei's civil right movement 1958-1962 Montagnard uprisings 1964-1965 FULRO insurgency against Kinh settler chauvinists 1967-1992

[@ichsagnix4127]

Calling the decline of coffee production in Vietnam a "mismanagement" is kinda very wrong. Think yourself in to the situation in Vietnam at the time. The whole country was basically bombed to oblivion by the US, no matter what kind of agriculture you wanted to do, it involved intense work in removing mines, duds and polluted earth from the Agent Orange flights. So what will your prioritized crop be, when you are a huge poulation who needs to eat every day? Definitly not coffee! And thanks to the fact that any country able to help with these shortcomings didn't want to cooperate with Vietnam for ideological reasons there was no other way than focusing exclusively on staple food at first.

[@mynameisandong]

They needed coffee as an export good because that‘s the only way to get their hands on hard currency they needed to import many goods crucial for the country that weren‘t available in socialist states - so it‘s a bit too easy to say coffee wasn’t essential

[@ichsagnix4127]

@@mynameisandong I think, we are talking debating past each other here. I was just trying to state that it's kinda misinterpreted to call it mismanagement if a country prefers staple foods over coffee. Vietnam is an agrarian country, of course they would focus on the feeding the people first. Yes, that coffee is wonderful to get some sweet foreign currency to for example acquire industrial machines can't be denied. Making sure that nobody starves is just a little more important.

[@Krasnoye158]

@@mynameisandong this is just not true. Viet Nam at the time didn’t trade much with the outside so hard currency wasn’t a pressing issue. There was no need to export just to get currency.

[@d.b.2215]

"Mismanagement" refers to the Soviet-style planned economy that plunged a primary rice-growing country to the edge of famine. It's very much the communist party's wrong-headed, ideologically driven economic policies that brought our country to that point. Why do you feel the need to brush that off?

[@juamu1132]

the real problem was their war in cambodia there were sanctions placed on them and allot of them was stationed in cambodia fighting the khmer rouge.

[@leapingkitties]

Now that's a piece of history I've never heard of before, fascinating stuff. Now I just want Vietnamese food, my absolute favorite. Thanks for sharing.

[@blackwellcolin5538]

In the mid 1990s I helped in a project for the German aid agency GIZ, which helped take the old East German project and increase production and efficiency significantly. That was the take off point where Vietnam became the second largest global coffee exporter

[@emilyanhhoang6012]

As a Vietnamese, this is incredibly fascinating to know 😄

[@PhongArtphotography]

😊 as Vietnamese from highland where coffee is cultivated, I didnt know about this history part, thank you Andong ❤❤❤

[@cudanmang_theog]

Vietnamese are recent settler colonists in the highland area brought by French colonials to genocide and replace the indigenous Montagnard peoples and take over their lands

[@stefanklein7500]

Care packages with coffee packs, the metal foil packaging, where also a good way to hide the security metal strip of paper money. Chances the packages went through cargo scanning and didn't "get lost" were greatly increased when money was fixed to coffee packages, canned pineapple and similar.

[@noob19087]

These documentaries are some of your best videos, glad to see another one!

[@tweefruit]

i always love your food history videos, so happy to see this in my sub box

[@KonischOdipus]

I have to admit I never heard of vietnamese coffee before. But I will definitely try it! And most importantly: Thanks for yet another amazing food history video. I laughed, I learned and I will definitely test my east german colleagues on their history knowledge tomorrow!

[@liliammills]

Vietnam youtubeeem.com/9QJfjcreTW5 st my east german colleagues on their history knowledge

[@tonythong5352]

A tip: Don't be fooled and do not drink too much at once because it tasted like a tasty dessert, the authentic drink is quite strong. I made that mistake way too many times...

[@DFWTexan42]

I got hooked on Viet coffee a few years ago. My favorite is still a blend of 50/50% Robusta /Arabica, as I think they complement each other. Robusta has a rougher, more chocolaty flavor, wheres Arabica has an appealing floral taste, but can tend towed an unpleasant acidity. The blend tends to tame the excess of either alone. IMHO

[@pakngah3715]

In Malaysia and Singapore, we have a coffee mixture made by roasting together cheaper Robusta coffee beans, wheat flour, sugar and magarine. Known locally as kopi kampung (koepee karmpoong), it is popular especially among older people. Its creamy and caramalised taste coupled with higher levels of caffeine plus cheaper price are unrivalled. Served straight or with sugar or with sweetened condensed milk, it goes well with half boiled eggs (flavoured with soy sauce and white pepper powder) and toast with kaya (kar yar/egg coconut cream) jam for breakfast or tea.

[@ReubenNinan]

I absolutely love these videos! They’re so informative and entertaining, really well made my guy

[@teachmotivaterepeat9712]

LOVED the video!!! Thank you for investing the time in research and making of the video

[@PovlKvols]

What a great story. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@chrisholds1]

Thanks for this food history Andong. It was really fascinating and I enjoyed it a great deal! 🙂 Please keep making these sort of episodes along with all of your other very enjoyable and informative videos. I always learn something when I watch your videos.

[@lilacdoodz]

This was so cool to watch! I had no idea about the history of Vietnamese coffee!

[@yannsaint-germain4527]

This is one of your best videos, Andong! A dozen minutes very well spent on my end.

[@natefunk1]

These history videos are the reason I subbed. Keep it up ma dude.👍

[@enternalinferno]

This was such a fun story, glad to have you back!

[@mrz4252]

As someone who is partially of Vietnamese ancestry, I greatly appreciate this video!

[@yippeyaio]

I know how much work these videos are, but you have a talent to tell this very interesting stories in a funny manner and this brings so muuuuch value to KZbin. Please keep up with this! Kellogg’s was so far my favourite and still use this in smalltalk conversations 😅

[@CryptoMoonshots2024]

Your historical videos are next level, mega Alda!

[@davidfuchs97]

What an interesting video! I loved the Vietnamese iced coffee. I had no idea about it‘s connection to German history. Thanks for this great content.

[@Uberlord1337]

Hell yeah been looking forward to the next Andong food history video

[@SpiegelDasKaetzchen]

Glad you're doing those kind of videos again, I missed that!

[@brutkastentv]

Great Video Andong (: Still astounded by the complex colonial circumstances that brought Beverages like Tea, Coffee & Spirits around the World. Thanks for doing really needed educational work! Keep it coming!

[@annaknaifel]

Great video!!! Very interesting story and Andong‘s famous storytelling 😊 Thank you!

[@hay4101]

I'm Vietnamese, I drink coffee everyday but never think about the coffee history, It is good to know where coffee come from

[@emulgatorx]

The subtitles "Hey, I know what you're thinking" for "Jetzt will ich aber nicht gehört haben, was Sie vielleicht gedacht haben" unfortunately does not capture the intricacies of that sentence. A more literal translation would have been "I chose to overhear what you might have thought" implying "because otherwise I would have to report you to the authorities and you'd be in big trouble". I know these subtitles were not created by Andong, so this is no criticism, I just thought it might be interesting to non-German speakers.

[@simonh6371]

That's an incorrect translation, overheard means something different. The translation should be '' I chose not to hear what you might have thought. Overheard ist schwer zu uebersetzen, bedeutet so was wie zufaellig gehoert, aus einem Gespraech woran man nicht beteiligt war.

[@ephan6364]

Thank you for the history of Vietnamese coffee. I couldn't believe it that Gẻmany actually helped Vietnam in the coffee industry. Good research.

[@alysoffoxdale]

Putting deep dives connecting history and culture back in your food videos again? I am so here for it!

[@reitsmacbkdw]

This has got to be your best documentary yet! Well, maybe just the funniest! Thank you!

[@moishemillerr]

So interesting! Thanks for the little history lesson man

[@anitapaulsen3282]

Your entertaining and humorous presentation of this coffee history was most enjoyable.

[@heroino89]

Yeeeeeess!! More food history and the familiar Andong music!

[@swat3563]

Your studio and the whole video asthetic is so relaxing and vibes. keep up the great work! from the netherlands.

[@TomMannis]

I love your food history videos. Keep them coming!

[@meLo_orig]

I stopped for the coffee, went off having learned something new. Thanks for the video!

[@Skyliner04s]

Heya Andong! (east) German viewer here! I was expecting something else from this video. As most of the "Chinese" restaurants where I live are managed by people with Vietnamese origin, I wondered if you could shine a light on why so many Vietnamese came to the GDR. Nevertheless, very interesting stuff!^^ Me likey!^^ Thank you!

[@aznmochibunny]

It is possible that the Chinese restaurants run by Vietnamese might have some traces of Chinese bloodline or are Chinese who lived in Vietnam before immigrating. In Vietnam, these people are referred to as the Hoa people and are an ethnic group in Vietnam.

[@Ascania]

@@aznmochibunny Nope. It has to do with the Vietnamese guest workers in East Germany. After the wall of the Berlin Wall most of them were laid off when the factories they worked in closed down and (IIRC) Vietnam wouldn't take them back before their contracted term ended. The same time saw a large spike in demand for chinese-style cuisine.

[@grundgesetzart.1463]

they came to study and to work. The only type of immigration that Germany needs and also a beneficial arrangement for the migrants themselves. I would change the 100.000s of Afghans, Syrians etc for Vietnamese people, if it would be possible.

[@simonh6371]

Great vid, thanks for sourcing and squeezing in so much old footage, loved it! Actually I knew about the East German connection from a German documentary miniseries ''Mahlzeit DDR'' which has a whole episode about the coffee problem, but I didn't know it had been started under French colonial rule Liked and subscribed

[@jankoch267]

I recently had some Vietnamese Specialty Coffee and it was quite enjoyable. I do enjoy Ethiopian and Columbian Coffee more but it had some nice deep flavours though not as complex as higher grown coffees

[@greenleaf4127]

this was a very fun episode!

[@PaulV.]

Well I would say if people went to protest because of the lack of quality coffee their lives were not as bad as others would try to convince you.

[@TechAltar]

Great video! Love these food history stories ❤

[@NathanL]

I love your food history videos, please do more.

[@weltvonalex]

Thank you, that was a really good content and very interesting.

[@CASIOF-91W]

Wow, this guy mentioned the Vietnam War like it was a natural disaster that just happened. He didn't even mention USA. for shame

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

A 30 year tragedy 😢

[@simonh6371]

The USA was only involved in it for 10 of the 30 years. It started off as a war against the French colonisers right after WW2 after Japanese occupation ceased - this happened in other Asian countries too like Indonesia against the Dutch. They were kicked out in 1954. Then it was a civil war between north and south until 1965 when the US entered the conflict. Hence it was called the ten thousand day war.

[@ranjanbiswas3233]

USA wasn't in fault of the age long Vietnam war happening in Vietnam. You don't know anything.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

@@simonh6371 20 of the 30 years

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

@@ranjanbiswas3233 except the US supported France retaking its former colony with lethal aid

[@madcowpp]

The food history videos are among the best on your channel. Thanks for the great content.

[@Sassafrassassassa]

Fascinating video! you’re the king of food history videos!

[@mynameisandong]

I believe that title will forever belong to Max from Tasting History, but thanks :D

[@bradbrisbane]

I really enjoy food history. Thank you. I've never thought or heard about this.

[@n_other_1604]

The coffee filter was invented in east Germany... Saxony has a forgotten coffee culture as long & rich as Vienna, Italy, France & so on.

[@simonh6371]

Seriously? That was Melitta right? I thought it was a western German company. My pack of filters is labelled as being made in Minden.

[@n_other_1604]

@@simonh6371 Yes it was Melitta Bentz & she was born in Dresden where she also invented it & started her business... Wikipedia: "The fast-growing company eventually relocated in 1929 to Minden in eastern Westphalia as no more satisfactory production facilities could be found in Dresden."

[@simonh6371]

@@n_other_1604 Thanks I did look on wiki afterwards and found out she invented it in Dresden. I know Minden pretty well actually, I was stationed in Herford for 2 years. Used to go to some club there with German friends.

[@TashJansson]

YES! FOOD HISTORY EPISODE!!

[@MrTraveller.]

Thanks for letting us know this information

[@fenyx2558]

Need more food history docus from you!

[@tudorgt]

what a cool and engaging story teller and story :) tysm

[@binhphan564]

During the planned economy period in Vietnam, which lasted until 1985-1986, the Government of Vietnam also limited people's access to coffee, and they did come up with the same thing that GDR did- mixing all kind of stuffs, from soy beans, corn,... to areca nut extraction to recreate the taste and smell of strong coffee. That very method was brought to a higher level by Trung Nguyên, the most well known Vietnamese coffee brand, which turns it into a million dollar business, and they still continue that "blending" until today. That's why people with coffee knowledge, or those who have access/tasted real coffee, are turning their back on Trung Nguyên, and show their support to smaller coffee producers/brands that offer the real deal.

[@cuthomas4664]

Most of the audience of this video they don't bother understand the fact. East Germany coffee style almost destroyed our coffee heritage from the French. Tụi khán giả kênh này có hiểu gì về lịch sử phát triển của cafe Việt Nam mình đâu. Đa phần thông tin xàm

[@Dima-je6hu]

​@@cuthomas4664 hello, Sir! im small YT blogger and now i'm making a video about Vietnam coffe, where are you leave can i ask you a few question about hostory of coffee?

[@jacquespoulemer3577]

Andong Wonderful. As a Teutonophile, foodie, and history nut this little gem escaped my notice before. It's one of those tiny details that gets lost in the shuffle. It was also fun seeing the old East German coffee packets. I've noticed that ex-colonies in the warmer parts of the world all use canned milk. Many famous drinks (the first I learned of was Thai Tea) use canned milk as an ingredient Tbank you for this. 🤓 all the best, Jim Oaxaca Mexico

[@khoatran-pc6tb]

Speaking as a Vietnamese, I do think our use of condense milk is more of a result f wartime ration. In fact, here we do raise our own dairy cattle and have even started to experiment with cheese making

[@Wadser]

Back in 2018 I visited Hanoi and Saigon and in both cities I was able to get phin coffee while eating breakfast. In 2022 I visited Saigon again and phin coffee was nowhere to be found. Every coffee shop was using espresso machines like in the US. Life is getting faster there so small things like that have gone away.

[@HoaTruong-km9rk]

There still a lot of place use the phin. You just didn't know it. It's fine

[@cuthomas4664]

Well you can ask for phin coffee and the shop will serve you though

[@NR-fd9wv]

i don't know how this is even possible, i've been to vietnam in 2022 as well and i got phin coffee everwhere.

[@tranthichinh6233]

@@NR-fd9wv as Vietnamese, I confirm !!!

[@8Lloyd1]

I just love how this video made me feel good about coffee. I love coffee in any case and vietnam style is in the top 5 of all coffee styles. I am smarter than yesterday, so thanks again Andong!

[@zoltankaparthy9095]

Very interesting. Your presentation was excellent.

[@momolife1982]

GREAT VIDEO!!! KEEP THEM UP

[@fiatlux8828]

These are your best kinds of vids tbh

[@tomeatshouston]

Fascinating. I'd always assumed that Vietnam's coffee had something to do with French colonialism (like their pastries and sandwiches). This was a very educational -- and entertaining -- video. Thanks Andong!

[@tomasdo5667]

Thanks Andong, no text book, media or newspaper in Viet Nam has mentioned it.

[@lindenlonstrup3326]

Love these kind of history videos you do. I'd suggest swapping out the thumbnail with something a little more striking so that it catches the eye of more people as it deserves to.

[@RecipesOfHope]

Thanks for this great sip of history

[@c4li]

never knew about this, super interesting! especially as a weird coffee person.

[@t0mn8r35]

This was very enjoyable and brought back very old (65 years ago( memories when we escaped Hungary in 1956 with one imitation leather suitcase and in the suitcase was a packet of coffee because no coffee = no life..

[@eh1496]

I had the pleasure of tasting amazing arabica coffee in Dal Lat. So delicious... The classic vietnamese coffee is mostly 100% robusta and despite being super strong it's pretty boring taste wise. Didn't get used to the sweetened condensed milk though...

[@Xeqcme]

This was great!

I used to live down the road from Röstfein coffee roastery in Magdeburg in (former) East Germany as a uni student. Great smells.

[@johnweig4667]

Sehr interessant! Vielen Dank

[@NoName-sb9tp]

My friend, that’s some interesting facts about our coffee industry that most people will never know. Thank you for making a video about our country Vietnam. Can you make a video about Pho next? The origin of pho would be very interesting for you.

[@wendyshoowaiching4161]

Yes I have it too. Very fascinating product

[@AlexanderHayorov]

It’s actually Soviet Russian Truck - ZIL 130 that you used in video multiple times, but it doesn’t make the story bad.

[@mrmakhno3030]

There is also a weird kind of coffee in Vietnam, mostly used by the Communist forces in South Vietnam during the war. They used rice, break them into powder, put on heated pan until gaining black or brown color, add some water and sugar then boil this mixture and serve. They won the war with some kind of weird drink like that.

[@minhnguyenphanhoang4193]

It's the trick to spare coffee. People still do that but with soy bean and it is looked down upon.

[@jimmyyu2184]

So the Meika "Coffee" is the same as what American Civil War soldiers drank as "Coffee"... Fascinating connection/history.

[@rahulshivaram1510]

Love this!

[@mememoments2779]

great story, great viddeo!

[@tsunekakou1275]

It is weird to say "things started to look real good" during French colonial rule, maybe for the French rulers and coffee plantation owners, i guess. Saying the Vietnam War was devastating for coffee industry to some extent is true, but we had a lot of important stuff to worry about, fancy bean juice is not one of them. Honestly, if there were bombs exploding around you it wouldn't stop you from having your daily morning coffee enema. Tone deaf is the most i can say about this video.

[@mynameisandong]

There’s only so much information you can include in a 15 minute video. my priority is to share this under-told story. you can’t reasonably expect me to turn this into a discourse about colonialism and Socialism and still keep it watchable. I just like most recipe videos that includes meat will not discuss its consequences of climate change, and the unsustainability of the meat industry

[@tsunekakou1275]

@@mynameisandong Weak excuse, no one asking you to do that, i don't know what your bias are (anti-communist?) but the tone is completely wrong on that part, solely focus on coffee and ignore the suffering part of the people. There are youtube recipe videos that discuss sustainability of the ingredients. Completely ignore the Vietnamese farmer's suffer (at that point they didn't even know what communism were) but went great length to describe the Germans need their coffee like their life depends on it. It's not that hard to write a couple empathic lines of script. I think you should take this criticism and write a better script next time, or just forget about writing a history piece because this one is terrible.

[@Poohze01]

Such a great video! I love me some good food-history!

[@gideonm.7425]

Great video! Also, I noticed the word "Melange" was written on the RONDO pack... "The Spice Must Flow.."

[@julianbouquet3536]

Sweet Video!

[@brian5728]

Great video. If you and Adam Ragusea did a colab video or project of somekind it would be an epic concoction of food history and science.

[@Philboh8]

1:05 that music had me thinking Mark Rober was about to join in and start explaining it

[@DasIllu]

Kevin McLeod and all the other musicians... Nowadays no one even seems to want to credit them anymore for their Creative Commons work that keeps youtube alive.

[@david3549tw]

It’s good coffee and a good repotting. Tks

[@muhaiminhakim1183]

I love how andong make this food history video.. keep it up.. loving your contents..✨

[@MapleDaze]

i love learning the nuance to these types of topics. Important to know that most of this is fueled by captialism, globalism, and colonialism. they are happy byproducts that we can drink this in the west, but the reasons sometimes are not simply "shared" knowledge

[@andrejmucic5003]

I don't think I can ever watch any of videos again.

[@joeseeking3572]

Interesting. I love Vietnamese coffee, whether it's sitting in a Highlands cafe in Saigon or at the lakeside with the swan boats in Dalat. My Vietnames is poor and limited, but I can order my way around a coffeehouse.