Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Coffee Culture

Spending an afternoon sipping iced coffee and chatting the day away is nothing new in Saigon. It's almost a daily required event for some Saigonese. It also may explain why the French were so enthralled with Vietnam for so long. But ever since Vietnam opened its economic borders a plethora of coffee companies have invaded Vietnam and not a Starbucks among them - YAY!

Nothing against Starbucks, but their coffee has got to be one of the worst around and why would you spend your hard earned cash there when local chains, independent coffee houses (Mojo), small mom/pop cafes set up in the front of their homes (everywhere just look) and international coffee chains and even fancyAsian chains are everywhere.

We spent our last day in Saigon revisiting some of our favorite shops and squeezing in a little more sight seeing.

Between all of this we decided to stop in Highlands Coffee for a refreshing coffee pick-me-up. These westernized coffee cafes can be found in most of the tourist areas and has tourist prices to match, about equal to what we pay at home. But we're on vacation and can afford to splurge on a $5 fancy coffee drink, especially if they are this good. The layered green tea latte and mocha tasted as good as they looked.

The ice green tea also came layered!

Blended coffee drinks are big here also. In 90 degree weather they definitely hit the spot.

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