Da Lat: Coffee Farm Tour with Roasting & Tasting Workshop

4.99

(159 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

The drive out from Da Lat felt shorter than I expected — maybe because I was busy watching the mist roll over the hills. When we pulled up at Twin Beans Farm, you could smell the coffee even before stepping out of the van. Our guide, Minh, waved us over with both hands (I think everyone does that here) and started talking about how Arabica grows best in this weirdly cool air. The plants looked almost shy under their big leaves. We walked between rows, brushing past wet grass, and Minh handed me a cherry to try — sweet at first, then sort of grassy. Not what I thought coffee would taste like straight off the branch.

I liked that nothing felt rushed. Minh explained every step — picking, drying, sorting — but mostly he just told stories about his family and how they learned to roast by trial and error. The roastery itself was warm inside, all wood smoke and beans crackling in the drum. They let us scoop our own green beans into the roaster (I spilled a few; nobody cared), and I tried to listen for that “first crack” sound he kept mentioning. It’s louder than you’d think. There was this moment when everyone went quiet just to hear it — kind of funny how serious we all got about coffee for a second.

Afterward we sat around a big table for tasting. The cups were tiny but strong — floral and sharp, not bitter like back home. Minh laughed when I tried to say “cà phê sữa nóng” (hot milk coffee) in Vietnamese; I probably butchered it. If you come during harvest season (November to January), you can help pick cherries too, which sounded fun but also exhausting after seeing how much work goes into each cup. The whole thing made me look at my morning coffee differently now.