{"id":3891,"date":"2026-07-28T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/?post_type=news&p=3891"},"modified":"2026-07-28T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:55:00","slug":"danang-mam-coffee","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/news\/danang-mam-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee With Fish Sauce and Ngoc Linh Ginseng: Flavors Da Nang Tried for Just Three Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

At APEC Park in central Da Nang, \"Dai tiec Ca phe 2026 (Vietnam Coffee Challenge 2026)\" ran from July 24 to 26. On the stalls were coffee made with Nam O fish sauce (ca phe mam), coffee with Ngoc Linh ginseng, and coffee with Tra My cinnamon. Hosted by the Hai Chau ward People's Committee, admission was free, from 14:00 to 21:00 each day. The event is already over, but what these three days tested was less a lineup of new drinks than a way to load the mountain specialties Da Nang took on in the 2025 administrative merger onto the city's beverages. There's something here for people choosing souvenirs in Vietnam and for businesses selling regional ingredients in Japan alike.<\/p>\n

A \"Da Nang creative coffee\" stall that stood in APEC Park for just three days<\/h2>\n

According to Ti\u1ec1n Phong and Tu\u1ed5i Tr\u1ebb, at the center of the venue wasDa Nang creative coffee<\/strong>In a space with that name, four coffees paired with Central Vietnam specialties took center stage: Nam O fish sauce, Ngoc Linh ginseng, Tra My cinnamon, and ca phe bo. Ca phe bo is a product Trinh Ca Phe has made since 2018, blending Robusta with fresh mashed avocado (bo), BNEWS\/VNA explains. A cup made with dang sam and ca phe am do, brewed at low temperature, were also on offer.<\/p>\n

The accompanying program featured a workshop on the traditional phin brewing method, demonstrations and latte art with local and international baristas competing, and acoustic, saxophone and DJ stages. The message on display was \"Taste – Art – Experience.\" Offering residents and travelers a new experience, encouraging creativity, and raising the value of coffee tied to Da Nang's specialties, the organizers aimed to turn the event intoA regularly held tourism product<\/strong>into something bigger\u2014that's the line the organizers laid out. During the event, gifts were handed to 40 policy-priority households in the ward. The makeup plainly reflects its character as a city event run by the local government.<\/p>\n

How Nam O fish sauce ends up as a powder on top of coffee<\/h2>\n

Ca phe mam is not liquid fish sauce poured into coffee. First-press Nam O fish sauce (mam nhi) is dry-roasted, pounded, and ground into a powder that is sprinkled over Vietnamese Robusta. A thin layer of cream sits on top, giving a build of bitterness, body, and a restrained saltiness. It was devised by Nguyen Thai Nhat Huy (37 at the time of the Thanh Nien interview) of the Nam O fish sauce workshop 'Huong Lang Co' together with young people from the village, and Thanh Nien covered the effort on May 18, 2025. The same Huy also ran the booth at this event.<\/p>\n

As long as fish sauce is handled as a liquid, buyers have no choice but to carry home a bottle-heavy, breakable, and prone to leaving its smell on everything. The moment it becomes a powder, the range of things it can go into widens to drinks and sweets. What the village of Nam O did was less invent a flavor thanChange of form<\/strong>It was.<\/p>\n

The underlying context is no small thing either. Nam O is a fishing village at the mouth of the Cu De River, at the foot of the Hai Van Pass, where fish sauce has been made for over 400 years. In Decision No. 2974, dated August 27, 2019, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the village's fish sauce production as national intangible cultural heritage. Rather than inventing a new drink's story from scratch, they layered one more sheet atop a signboard the state had already endorsed.<\/p>\n

The event and its ingredients, by the numbers<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nDetails<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Event name<\/td>\n\u0110\u1ea1i ti\u1ec7c C\u00e0 ph\u00ea 2026\uff0fVietnam Coffee Challenge 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dates and hours<\/td>\nJuly 24-26, 2026, 14:00-21:00 daily (now ended)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Venue and admission<\/td>\nAPEC Park, Hai Chau Ward, Da Nang \/ free<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Organizer<\/td>\nHai Chau Ward People's Committee and others<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The message on display<\/td>\n\u300cTaste – Art – Experience\u300d\uff08BNEWS\uff0fVNA\uff09<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The organizers' aim<\/td>\nRaise coffee's value with local specialties and grow the event into a regular tourism product<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The combinations on show<\/td>\nNam O fish sauce \/ Ngoc Linh ginseng \/ Tra My cinnamon \/ avocado (c\u00e0 ph\u00ea b\u01a1) and more<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nam O fish sauce village<\/td>\nOver 400 years of history; recognized as national intangible cultural heritage under Decision No. 2974, dated August 27, 2019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Village location<\/td>\nAbout 15 to 17 km north of central Da Nang, at the mouth of the Cu De River and the foot of Hai Van Pass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Prices for comparison<\/td>\nThe Hue shop that originated salt coffee charges 15,000 dong a cup (as reported by VnExpress in December 2022; about 93 yen at 1 yen = 162 dong)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The merged Da Nang City<\/td>\nMerged with Quang Nam Province on July 1, 2025; area 11,859.59 km2, population 3,065,628<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

The drinkers, the makers, the officials\u2014words from three days<\/h2>\n

\u0110\u1ed7 Huy\u1ec1n Trang, who came from Son Tra Ward, said that when she smelled it before drinking, the coffee's aroma was laced with the savory scent of fish sauce, saltiness, and a touch of astringency, telling Ti\u1ec1n Phong: 'Cafe Mam is made much like salt coffee, but the saltiness is stronger, it smells of fish sauce, and the aftertaste is sweet. It's very distinctive.' Explaining it against salt coffee as a benchmark makes the drink's place easy to grasp.<\/p>\n

Nguy\u1ec5n Th\u00e1i Nh\u1eadt Huy, who ran the booth, spoke about the business rather than the taste: \"This is the work of the people of Nam O's traditional fish-sauce village. We want to diversify the product and get traditional fish sauce into more hands, especially young people.\" It's worth noting that the person at the counter openly names reaching a younger audience as the goal.<\/p>\n

Richard, a traveler from the Netherlands, said he was impressed after hearing the origins and the concept, noting that the coffee tells not only its own story but 'even the story of the medicinal-herb belt spread across the mountains of western Da Nang.' Nguyen Van Duy, chairman of the Hai Chau Ward People's Committee, said that pairing the city's famed specialties and medicinal plants with coffee is meant to 'raise the value from raw material to finished product, boost consumption, and cement Da Nang's image as a young, dynamic, and distinctive destination.' Using coffee as a bridge to tell the story of Da Nang's people and culture is how he framed it.<\/p>\n

What Japanese makers can take away is not the flavor but the single move of \"turning it into a powder\"<\/h2>\n

Japan has fish sauces too: ishiru from Noto, shottsuru from Akita, ikanago sauce from Kagawa. All are sold in bottles, and the reason to buy is limited to \"people who use them as a Japanese-cuisine seasoning.\" What Nam O did was strip away that limit. Dry it and grind it into powder, and it can go on drinks, sweets, and in place of salt. The sales spot can leave the seasoning shelf too.<\/p>\n

Turning it into powder brings practical perks for travelers, too. Liquids run into carry-on volume limits and can break in checked luggage. Powder is light and less prone to picking up odors.How well it travels as a souvenir<\/strong>rises. The move to make Vietnam's specialties the face of exports is advancing beyond beverages, too, as with Buon Ma Thuot beans heading for the Chinese market (Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Heads to Shanghai, Changing How Vietnamese Souvenirs Are Chosen<\/a>), and this event point in the same direction on one count: putting the place of origin's name front and center.<\/p>\n

There's another point, about sequence. Nam O had first secured third-party backing as a national intangible cultural heritage, and the new products rode on top of that. Instead of launching a novel combination first and hunting for provenance later, it uses official recognition as the foundation on which to create room to play. What Japanese businesses handling local ingredients can imitate is this order of design. Don't treat certification or registration as an end in itself\u2014use it as a platform for adding derivative products aimed at younger buyers.<\/p>\n

A mountain specialty became a city product\u2014a merger changed the event<\/h2>\n

The \"vast medicinal-herb belt\" Richard speaks of is no metaphor. On July 1, 2025, Quang Nam Province and Da Nang City merged, and the new Da Nang City now covers 11,859.59 km\u00b2 with a population of 3,065,628. The Tra Linh area, the main production zone for Ngoc Linh ginseng, and the home of Tra My cinnamon now sit within the same city. A plan that lines up sea fish sauce and mountain ginseng at a single booth works precisely because the administrative boundaries changed.<\/p>\n

Da Nang has held a string of events built around Ngoc Linh ginseng, including a ginseng festival that put counterfeit countermeasures front and center (Zero fakes promised: three days at Da Nang's first Ngoc Linh ginseng festival, a national treasure<\/a>). The city has also floated plans for an international festival under the banner \"Ngoc Linh ginseng-the essence of the world's traditional medicine.\" Serving a ginseng-laced cup at a coffee festival reads as a cheap way to build an entrance to that long lineup of projects.<\/p>\n

There's precedent. Salt coffee was born in Hue around 2010, and the shop credited as its birthplace was still serving it at 15,000 dong a cup (about 93 yen at 162 VND to the yen) even at the end of 2022, more than 12 years on. Whether an offbeat combination takes root in a city has come down to the steadiness of its price rather than the strength of the buzz. In Ho Chi Minh City, a cloth-filter cup that has run for half a century (A 70-yen cup under a bridge\u2014half a century of cloth-filter coffee in Ho Chi Minh City<\/a>) points to the same thing: only drinks that land at an everyday price stay in the city. Whether Cafe Mam ends as an event-only novelty or becomes a source of income for Nam O village hinges on whether a permanent point of sale and a price get set.<\/p>\n

Practical info: touring the sites behind this story after the event<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Destination \/ item<\/th>\nDetails<\/th>\nNotes<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u0110\u1ea1i ti\u1ec7c C\u00e0 ph\u00ea 2026<\/td>\nAPEC Park, Hai Chau ward, Da Nang \/ July 24-26, 2026, 14:00-21:00 \/ free admission<\/td>\nEnded after three days. Reported to be aiming for an annual event<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nam O fish sauce village<\/td>\nAbout 15\u201317 km north of central Da Nang, at the mouth of the Cu De River and the foot of the Hai Van Pass<\/td>\nEasy to fold into a northbound route to the Hai Van Pass or Lang Co<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The village's standing<\/td>\nRecognized as national intangible cultural heritage under Decision No. 2974 dated August 27, 2019<\/td>\nFish-sauce fermentation jars still line up here<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Home of Ngoc Linh ginseng<\/td>\nAfter the merger, the Tra Linh area within Da Nang<\/td>\nThe city has signaled plans to develop it as a national ginseng hub<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Price guide<\/td>\n15,000 dong a cup at the shop in Hue where salt coffee originated<\/td>\nAbout 93 yen at roughly 1 yen = 162 dong (as of July 2026)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Quick yen conversion<\/td>\n50,000 dong \u2248 309 yen \/ 100,000 dong \u2248 617 yen \/ 500,000 dong \u2248 3,086 yen<\/td>\nAlso converted at 1 yen \u2248 162 dong<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Notes on taking it home<\/td>\nLiquid fish sauce runs into carry-on volume limits<\/td>\nPack powders and small bottles well in checked luggage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

For now, Cafe Mam is served mainly at the production site and event venues, gathering reactions before any full-scale commercialization, BNEWS\/VNA reports. Whether it is stocked at permanent shops in the city, and at what price, is not stated in any of the coverage.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

What the three-day event left behind wasn't the novelty of fish-sauce coffee but a concrete playbook for handing traditional foods to young customers. There's a state-recognized village name, an ingenious way to turn liquid into powder, and a government that supplied the venue and free admission. The steps are in place.<\/p>\n

If you're planning to go to Da Nang, the quickest move is to slot Nam O into the day you head north to Hai Van Pass. Combine it with a morning of seaside fishing and it fits into half a day (Hauling nets with fishermen on a dawn beach: the very first thing on a July morning in Da Nang<\/a>). If you handle regional ingredients in Japan, start by applying this case to your own situation: ask whether the materials on hand can be turned into a powder, and what \"third-party backing you should secure in advance\" your company needs.<\/p>\n

Sources:Ti\u1ec1n Phong<\/a>\uff0fTu\u1ed5i Tr\u1ebb<\/a>\uff0f\u0110\u1ea1i \u0110o\u00e0n K\u1ebft<\/a>\uff0fBNEWS\uff0fVNA<\/a>\uff0fThanh Ni\u00ean<\/a>\uff0fVietnamPlus<\/a>\uff0fVnExpress<\/a>\uff0fDa Nang City electronic information portal<\/a><\/small><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a coffee festival held in Da Nang's APEC Park on July 24\u201326, cups made with Nam O fish sauce, Ngoc Linh ginseng, and Tra My cinnamon lined up. We unpack the idea of turning 400-year-old fish sauce into powder and how it might apply to Japan's regional ingredients\u2014plus the crowd's reaction, a yen-conversion guide, and how to work Nam O village into your route.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"swell_btn_cv_data":"","ssp_meta_description":"\u30c0\u30ca\u30f3\u306eAPEC\u516c\u5712\u30677\u670824\u301c26\u65e5\u306b\u958b\u304b\u308c\u305f\u30b3\u30fc\u30d2\u30fc\u306e\u796d\u5178\u306b\u3001\u30ca\u30e0\u30aa\u30fc\u9b5a\u91a4\u30fb\u30b4\u30c3\u30af\u30ea\u30f3\u4eba\u53c2\u30fb\u30c1\u30e3\u30fc\u30df\u30fc\u8089\u6842\u306e\u4e00\u676f\u304c\u4e26\u3093\u3060\u3002400\u5e74\u306e\u9b5a\u91a4\u3092\u7c89\u306b\u5909\u3048\u305f\u767a\u60f3\u3068\u3001\u65e5\u672c\u306e\u5730\u57df\u7d20\u6750\u3078\u306e\u5fdc\u7528\u3092\u8aad\u307f\u89e3\u304f\u3002\u4f1a\u5834\u306e\u53cd\u5fdc\u3001\u5186\u63db\u7b97\u306e\u76ee\u5b89\u3001\u30ca\u30e0\u30aa\u30fc\u6751\u3078\u306e\u56de\u308a\u65b9\u307e\u3067\u3002","ssp_meta_keyword":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"purpose":[],"keyword":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-3891","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4014,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/3891\/revisions\/4014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"purpose","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purpose?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vietnam-gift.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}