Starbucks Vietnam: Why the US chain cannot crack a coffee-loving nation

Tu Anh Le loves going to the Starbucks astatine the buzzing bosom of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City.

The 26-year-old and her friends formal up for the juncture and instrumentality selfies astatine the cafe.

"Pictures astatine Starbucks marque my Instagram look nicer," says Tu Anh Le, who thinks the cafe is "luxurious", similar a five-star hotel. "I get a batch of likes and bully comments saying I look trendy."

That appears to beryllium the biggest gully for her due to the fact that though she is simply a instrumentality of Starbucks, she doesn't similar coffee: "It makes my teeth yellow. I similar smoothies oregon bubble beverage tea."

Ten years aft the American concatenation arrived successful Vietnam, the verdict is rather clear: Vietnamese radical emotion coffee, but they don't truly look to similar Starbucks. And the ones who do, similar Tu Anh Le, are not truly going for the coffee.

Starbucks accounted for conscionable 2% of Vietnam's $1.2bn (£934m) coffee-drinking marketplace successful 2022, according to Euromonitor International. And its footprint successful the state isn't expanding rapidly. It has 92 stores, which works retired to little than 1 for each cardinal people. By comparison, Thailand and Indonesia person astir 7 and 2 respectively.

"Starbucks' beingness remains constricted owed to [the] user penchant for section java flavours," says Nathanael Lim, an expert astatine Euromonitor International.

While Starbucks told the BBC it was committed to semipermanent concern successful Vietnam, it did not accidental if it was profitable successful the country.

But it has inactive fared amended than different planetary competitors. Another US chain, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, lone has 15 stores present aft 15 years. The Chinese-owned Mellower Coffee precocious announced it was closing its doors aft 4 years, portion Australia's Gloria Jean's near Vietnam successful 2017.

They each astir apt faced the aforesaid challenges arsenic Starbucks. Vietnam, aft all, is nary alien to coffee: It's the world's 2nd largest exporter of the brew.

For 1 thing, the paper is pricey for a competitory marketplace similar Vietnam - a engaged thoroughfare hosts astatine slightest 10 java shops, from roadside stalls to hep cafes. And drinking java is acold from a luxury successful a state wherever thoroughfare java vendors pushing trolleys often service the portion connected cheap, tiny integrative tables. Some adjacent connection customers newspapers arsenic mats truthful that they tin bask their java sitting connected the ground.

And two, the Java spot frappucinos and pumpkin spiced lattes that person won elsewhere conscionable don't look to chopped it here.

"The Starbucks paper is not diverse," says Trang Do, a crippled creator surviving successful the coastal metropolis of Da Nang. She drinks astatine slightest 3 cups of java a day, but seldom drops into the section Starbucks.

She tried it erstwhile it archetypal opened - but she recovered the cappuccino "bland and not precise coffee-flavoured".

For her, accepted Vietnamese java wins hands-down. "It is stronger and much fragrant. The mode Vietnamese java is made with the filter helps to extract much coffee. When the java is brewed… and the blistery h2o is added to fto it drip slowly… [it] is the best."

To marque Vietnamese coffee, a tin filter called a "phin" is placed implicit a glass, and blistery h2o is past poured connected the java grounds. It takes astir 10 minutes for the decoction to percolate into the solid below. The portion tin beryllium served blistery oregon cold, and with oregon without condensed milk, a staple successful Vietnamese coffee.

French colonisers introduced java to Vietnam successful the 19th Century. But the archetypal java works was of the Arabica taxon and did not accommodate good to the country's blistery and humid clime and soil.

Then, years later, the French brought Robusta plants which thrived. And that is the java fashionable successful Vietnam contiguous - Robusta has much caffeine, and a stronger flavour that is besides much bitter.

Starbucks, however, uses 100% Arabica beans. The institution told the BBC this was done to execute "a flavour that tin beryllium subtle but besides complex".

But 97% of the java Vietnam consumes each twelvemonth - astir 200,000 tonnes, oregon 2kg per idiosyncratic - is of the Robusta variety.

It mightiness explicate wherefore adjacent java drinkers who bash spell to Starbucks don't look to emotion what's available. Marketer Tri Dang likes taking customers to Starbucks, particularly older ones due to the fact that of the cafe's "youthful" vibe.

But helium says helium seldom drinks java astatine Starbucks due to the fact that it has "a lighter smell, not bitter and does not suit my java taste".

And the paper has nary of the section favourites. While the astir fashionable accompaniment is condensed milk, determination are much adventurous options too. There is ovum coffee, calved successful Hanoi successful the 1940s. Amid an acute beverage shortage, an inventive bartender astatine the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel, Nguyen Van Giang, whisked successful ovum arsenic a substitute.

Today, immoderate section Vietnamese brands premix accepted Robusta java with ovum yolk, yogurt and adjacent effect to woo caller customers. A fashionable section concatenation Cong Coffee says its astir loved brew is an indulgent cuppa coconut coffee, which blends coconut cream, condensed beverage and ice.

Coffee is simply a root of "national pride" for Vietnam, says Tram Nguyen, a graphic decorator based successful Dalat.

"It is thing precise peculiar and I ever notation it whenever I speech astir Vietnam. I americium precise arrogant of Vietnamese coffee. I ever person a large emotion for beverage coffee, whether iced oregon hot."

She loves java truthful overmuch that she likes to effort retired a caller java spot astir each day.

"I lone went to Starbucks once, due to the fact that I wanted to effort the luxurious coffee, but I felt that the wealth I spent wasn't worthy what I got back, truthful I didn't travel back."

Cost is simply a large crushed wherefore Vietnamese radical hesitate to spell to Starbucks, adjacent to bask the novelty of it. A medium-sized portion astatine Starbucks with nary of the add-ons costs astir 90,000 Vietnamese Dong (£2.9; $3.8;). That's prohibitive successful a state wherever the mean monthly wage is lone astir $345.

Even Highlands, 1 of Vietnam's archetypal java store chains, and its astir successful, debuted arsenic a luxury chain, but yet rebranded and chopped prices. It present has much than 600 stores crossed the country.

And yet Starbucks merchandise is attracting collectors who are consenting to splurge. Tri Dang boasts a postulation of much than 40 Starbucks tumblers and cups, which are present worthy a fewer 1000 dollars.

But that doesn't alteration the information that dissimilar a decennary ago, for young Vietnamese who privation a cupful of coffee, determination are present plentifulness of options to take from.

"Starbucks java is thing peculiar to me, it's excessively fancy and I don't similar the taste," Tram Nguyen says. "I tin bask a prime java astatine a Vietnamese java store astatine fractional the price."