Urban Brews — an Instagram project in which 25 RMIT University students "decode" Ho Chi Minh City's café culture

Cafés in Ho Chi Minh City are no longer just "places to drink coffee." A "café aesthetic" that spans spatial design, lighting, music, and even the choice of tableware has become a field of expression for Gen Z. In March 2026, 25 students in the Professional Communication major at RMIT University Vietnam launched an Instagram project called "Urban Brews" to "decode" this culture through digital storytelling. This account, made up of more than 50 short videos and around 200 photos (@urbanbrewshcmc), is drawing attention as an attempt to capture café culture from an academic perspective.

What is Urban Brews — the full picture of the project

Urban Brews is an "experiential practice lab" designed by Dr. Adhvaidha Kalidasan of RMIT University Vietnam, using funding from a 2024 Teaching Award. Twenty-five second-year students in the Professional Communication major took part, producing short-form videos as they toured cafés around Ho Chi Minh City.

What makes it unique is that, rather than simply introducing cafés, each team was given a "theme prompt" based on a historical figure or literary work. The students thought about how to visualize their assigned theme within a café space, handling everything from filming and editing to posting.

Background of the project — why café culture becomes a subject of study

Vietnam's café industry is inseparable from the country's economic growth. In Vietnam, the world's second-largest coffee producer, street-corner cafés have functioned as hubs for socializing, business, and creative work. Ho Chi Minh City alone has thousands of cafés, and unique menu items likethe egg coffee born at Hanoi's Cafe Gianghave become known worldwide.

For Gen Z, cafés are both "photogenic places" and a medium for expressing their own identity. Urban Brews takes on the challenge of reframing this phenomenon within an academic framework.

The cafés the students visited and what they discovered

The cafés Urban Brews featured span a diverse range of venues across Ho Chi Minh City. From "A Little Studio Bookstore," themed on the world of Ghibli, to "Dulce de Saigon Café" with its Latin American atmosphere, to a historic café opened by ethnic Chinese — the genres and vibes are all over the map.

In the process of making a video, student Yen Thi said "the idea has to be real and authentic," stressing the importance of first observing with your own eyes and making discoveries before starting to film. Ngoc Tram said you "should research the audience's preferences and tell a story that draws them in," conscious of differentiating from run-of-the-mill café reviews.

What strikes me is how this project sets itself apart from "café influencers." It is precisely because of the constraint of the theme prompt that a perspective emerges which digs into the meaning of a space, rather than staying at surface-level "stylish introductions."Marou Bonbon PhởJust as with this, Vietnamese food culture has always embraced new interpretations, and café spaces are likewise still evolving.

Reactions from the education field and the café industry

Dr. Kalidasan praised the results of the project, saying the students proved themselves to be "remarkable storytellers." The strength of Urban Brews lies in its "authenticity," and precisely because it grew naturally out of Gen Z café culture, there is nothing contrived about it.

There has been a response from café owners as well. The students' videos convey each shop's appeal with an approach different from existing café reviews, and are welcomed as "a third-party perspective not aimed at promotion." The reaction on Instagram has been good too, with followers steadily growing, centered on Ho Chi Minh City's café-lover community.

The students themselves say they feel real, practical growth — sharper observation, skills in deliberate content creation, and confidence in leadership. It has also become a portfolio directly tied to their careers after graduation.

Impact on Japanese travelers and café lovers

The account @urbanbrewshcmc has the potential to function as a "new guidebook" for café-hopping in Ho Chi Minh City. Unlike conventional travel blogs or Google Maps reviews, its strength is that you can experience the atmosphere and context of a space through short videos.

For café lovers visiting Ho Chi Minh City from Japan, learning how local Gen Z choose and enjoy cafés offers a gateway to local experiences that don't appear in guidebooks.Pier Dessertandthe KKV flagship storeand other new culture spots in Ho Chi Minh City are worth checking out together.

Ripple effects on digital content education

Urban Brews is also a case study showing the intersection of university education and social media. There are examples in Japanese universities of running an Instagram account at the seminar level, but the design of using Teaching Award funding and incorporating literary theme prompts is rare.

Vietnam's digital content market is expanding rapidly, and TikTok penetration is among the highest even within ASEAN. The Urban Brews students will enter this market after graduation as content creators, digital marketers, and brand strategists. The "observe → discover → turn into a story" skills honed in the project can be applied to any field beyond cafés.

Practical information

Summary

Urban Brews is neither café reviewing nor influencer marketing. It is a project in which 25 university students, working within an academic framework, "decode" Ho Chi Minh City's café culture and share it as more than 50 videos. Scroll through the @urbanbrewshcmc feed and you'll get a sense of what Vietnam's Gen Z finds in café spaces. For your next café choices in Ho Chi Minh City, try adding a perspective different from the usual guidebook.

Citations and references

• How RMIT students decoded Vietnam cafe aesthetics – RMIT Vietnam
• @urbanbrewshcmc – Instagram