Between Robusta Beans and Phin Routines: Vietnamese Coffee, Starbucks, and Competence in Cultural Translation

Coffee is a bean, a stimulant, and a social routine. It is also a global commodity that becomes meaningful only when people give it rituals, tools, prices, places, and habits. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I explore Vietnamese coffee culture and Starbucks’ careful entry into Vietnam. I begin with the phin filter, condensed milk, coconut coffee, egg coffee, robusta beans, and the everyday café practices that make Vietnamese coffee far more than a beverage category. Coffee in Vietnam is historical and agricultural, sensorial and social.  I move to look at Starbucks decision making when they opened their first stores in Vietnam by first by going backward to the year 2000 in Australia, a contrast case.  Deciding to open a store in Vietnam in 2013, Starbucks took a careful decision-making strategy as a globally recognizable brand gradually learning to become locally legible within a much larger and vibrant Vietnamese coffee world. Along the way, this episode considers phin filters, robusta growing conditions, local café life, store design, menu adaptation, cultural competence, and the difference between being recognizable and being meaningful.