Shake & Savor: Coffee-Cocktails Workshop Vietnam

As a big fan of Vietnamese coffee I am always looking for new workshops and experiences connected to it when I visit the country. I found the coffee-cocktail workshop by the Vietnamese coffee brand Lacàph in Ho Chi Minh City and immediately signed up. We made two delicious cocktails and I learned a lot about how other parts of the coffee plant can be used in cocktails, as well as the beans we all know and love.

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About the Lacàph Coffee Experiences Space

The Lacàph Coffee Experiences Space is on the upper floor of an older building. A purple iron door (which is a bit hard to see when it’s opened) leads up the stairs. At the first landing turn to the left outside, open the glass door and you enter onto the sales floor, or proceed one door further down the balcony and you reach the coffee bar.

The workshop space is another floor up, reachable from the sales floor. It has big tables and many lights, surrounded by exposed brick. Since it’s away from the sales floor and coffee bar the atmosphere up there was was relaxed and calm, very conducive to learning.

Coffee-Cocktails Workshop

My workshop instructor, or “Coffee Guide” as they are called at Lacàph was Quan, featured in the main picture of this post. Apparently I had picked an unpopular day and time, because I ended up being the only person at the workshop.

Quan started the workshop with an explanation of the ingredients we would be using, while serving me a Vietnamese-Gin and Tonic, and an introduction to the two cocktails of the workshop: Cà Phê Mít and Phở Fizz.

The first cocktail he taught me to make was the Cà Phê Mít. The base of the cockatil is Vietnamese Phin Coffee, made from their Lacàph Phin Blend beans. Then comes a jackfruit infusion, followed by Sampan Rhum from the Distillerie d’Indochine near Hoi An (which you can also tour*). The mix is topped off with a ginger soda they make in-house and decorated with fresh mint and dried jackfruit.

While I savoured my first (well, second) cocktail Quan put on a short film about Lacàph coffee, their farms, their selection process and finally their roasting process. They have won awards for their coffee beans!

Next was the Phở Fizz cocktail. As the name suggests the cocktail is inspired by beef noodle soup. Cascara Tea is the base of this cocktail, a tea made from coffee cherry husks, which I had only encountered once before – 2023 at a roastery in Hoi An. Back then I wasn’t a big fan, but that didn’t stop me from fully diving in to this new experience. Lady Triệu Mekong Delta Dry Gin is the alcohol of choice for this cocktail, a gin made entirely from Vietnamese herbs and in Vietnam (only the juniper berries have to imported due to the climate). To add sweetness we used Coffee Blossom Honey – also made by Lacàph. Somewhere in there was an infusion of traditional Pho spices, as well as in the garnish of mint, lime and chili.

The cocktails had a bit more alcohol in them than I thought, which lead me to have a slice of honeycomb cake with coconut milk in the café space downstairs. And I am glad it did, as it was delicious! Not too sweet, a lovely texture and the coconut milk added a nice creaminess.

I also got a great recommendation for a place to eat at: Phở Phú Vương, which is nearby and serves hearty beef soup.

How to book the Shake & Savor: Coffee-Cocktails Workshop

The Shake & Savor: Coffee-Cocktails Workshop is one of three workshops at Lacàph, the other two being about Vietnamese Coffee & Culture and Vietnamese Egg Coffee. You can book the workshop directly online here on GetYourGuide*, on TripAdvisor* or klook*.