Robusta Nam Ban — Honey

The Honey process

In the Honey process, the fruit is removed and the beans are dried with the sticky mucilage still around them. The sugars in that mucilage settle into the beans as they dry, which is said to bring sweetness and roundness (more in Honey Process).

The producer's product page says this lot also goes through a step in which the whole cherries are fermented with salt. It is the salt fermentation Bui has used on other lots too.

Why salt

Fermentation is the process in which yeasts and bacteria break down the sugars in the cherry's flesh and juice. The longer it runs, the more complex the aromas, but go too far and it turns sour or muddy. As with pickles and miso, salt slows microbes down. It is a way of holding a long fermentation where you want it.

Ripe cherries only

According to the producer's stock list, this lot is 100% ripe cherries. On Robusta farms, ripe and unripe fruit are often stripped from the branch together. Taking the trouble to pick only ripe fruit is the basis for a clean cup.

In the cup

In the producer's description, it is not too bitter, with gentle acidity and good balance. We will publish specific flavor notes once we have confirmed them in our own cupping. We will also try it in a Phin, as espresso and with milk to see how it changes.

Nam Ban

Nam Ban is a town in Lam Ha district, Lam Dong province, a little over ten kilometers west of the highland city of Da Lat. The area is covered in red soil weathered from basalt, and most farms sit at roughly 800 to 1,000 m. It is a cool plateau with a wide gap between day and night temperatures. Bui's farm is a little higher, at 1,080 m.

Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta producer, and Lam Dong is one of its centers. In a region long known for volume, competitions judged on quality have started in recent years, and some producers are exploring what Robusta can taste like. Bui is one of them.

The producer, Bui Canh

Bui Canh is a former barista. He started in 2021 with a small roastery and now has his own farm and processing site in Nam Ban. As well as his own fields, he works with more than 20 neighboring farming households, buys their fully ripe cherries and finishes them at his own processing site. Everything from sorting the cherries to processing and quality checks is done in one place, under Bui.

Fermentation with salt is a method Bui has put real work into. For another lot, combining Natural Anaerobic with salt, he published a process of 36 hours of fermentation with 2% salt, and it placed Top 3 in the Robusta category of Vietnam Amazing Cup 2026 (85.88 points).

About this lot

The price will be listed once confirmed. We will also add the results of our own cupping to this page as soon as we have them.