When it comes to Khe Sanh in Quang Tri Province in central Vietnam, some may remember it as a place name where the fiercest fighting of the Vietnam War was waged. That same land is now transforming into a tourist destination where travelers themselves can experience everything from harvest to roasting to brewing, as a production area of Arabica coffee counting 100 years since cultivation began. This initiative, reported by the local paper Thanh Nien, catches the eye in that it bundles into a single tour two motives previously discussed separately\u2014battlefield tourism and coffee-production-area tourism. For Japanese travelers interested in both history and food, it looks set to broaden the options for a trip to central Vietnam.<\/p>\n
According to Thanh Nien, this experiential tour is a tourism product cultivated over about three years, and the flow is roughly as follows. In season, you pick coffee cherries ripened bright red, experience sorting and roasting, and brew by multiple methods\u2014hand drip, phin (a Vietnamese-style metal filter), and espresso\u2014to sample and compare. You even do the bagging with your own hands, and finally savor a freshly brewed cup surrounded by the remnants of war at the historic site of the former Ta Con Airport.<\/p>\n
A person who has cultivated coffee into a tourism resource says, \u201cTourists don\u2019t come just to drink coffee. They want to understand this land itself.\u201d Rather than showing off brewing technique, they convey the land\u2019s story carried in a single cup. That, they say, is Khe Sanh\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
Khe Sanh\u2019s coffee cultivation dates back to 1926. It\u2019s said to have begun when French botanist Eugene Poilane brought in just 9 seeds, and from there it reaches its 100th anniversary of cultivation on October 24, 2026. The very story of how an endeavor that began from 9 seeds has now grown into the region\u2019s key industry forms the core of the tour\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n
The memory of war lends this story heavy shading. The Battle of Khe Sanh lasted more than half a year from January 1968, and the Ta Con base (Khe Sanh Combat Base), which became a U.S. Marine stronghold, was exposed to fierce shelling and bombing. Traces of an about-3-km runway paved with metal plating and bunkers still remain, open to the public as a historic site. A highland ravaged by bombing has returned, half a century on, to Arabica fields, and drinking the beans grown in those fields at the former battlefield\u2014this very contrast creates a strong pull that other production-area tourism lacks.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a summary of the outline of Khe Sanh as a coffee-production area, centered on figures presented by Thanh Nien.<\/p>\n