At Da Nang's 'Coffee Grand Feast 2026' (Dai tiec ca phe), the event that carried a quiet intensity was the coffee-tasting contest held on July 25. Onstage, 36 people worked through three rounds, telling apart differences in aroma, blend ratios, and the faint gaps between coffee samples using taste and smell alone. Away from the flash of the music and tasting booths, Vietnamese coffee is deepening from a 'culture of drinking' into a 'culture of discernment.' For travelers, it offers a way to understand Vietnam as a coffee origin firsthand.<\/p>\n
Coffee Grand Feast 2026, hosted by the Da Nang City People's Committee, ran from July 24 to 26 at APEC Park in Hai Chau District. Street music played daily from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and tasting booths and workshops lined the grounds. Slotted in among them on July 25 was the Tasters Challenge.<\/p>\n
Thirty-six people took part. The three-round format explicitly judges 'sensory ability': identifying aromas, the blend ratios of multiple samples, and subtle differences between coffees, using only the tongue and nose. The next day, the 26th, a chocolate-art contest (capacity 32) was also scheduled \u2014 a lineup that put not just drinking but 'makers and judges' in the lead. Rather than a crowd-drawing event for the whole festival, it clearly positions itself as a stage to show coffee skill itself.<\/p>\n
'Guessing the aroma and the blend' might sound like a game of hunches and luck. It is the opposite: a domain you reach only through repeated training. In world-standard cup tasting, three cups sit on the table -- two identical, one slightly different in flavor. Competitors sniff, sip, and pick out that one cup as quickly and accurately as they can. Called triangulation, it is continuous with the practical quality-control skills that roasteries and trading houses use.<\/p>\n
What the 36 people in Da Nang took on is a contest of the senses along the same lines. In Vietnam, where Robusta dominates, aroma swings widely with a bean's fermentation level and roast depth. Growing the number of people who can put that difference into words and name it is a force that raises the quality of the growing region. Even watching as a spectator, the moment a competitor freezes their expression and concentrates with each sip carries a tension close to a refereeing scene in sport.<\/p>\n
Writing off Da Nang's local contest as a one-off sideshow misses the point. In May 2026, at the World Cup Tasters Championship held at BITEC in Bangkok, Thailand, Vietnam's Le Quang Cuong (Nicky) topped a field of 46 from around the world. It was the first time Vietnam won this world event. He earned his spot by winning the Vietnam national championship held in Ho Chi Minh City that April.<\/p>\n
Just as a path from national championship to world title opened up, Da Nang built a 36-person coffee-tasting contest into its city festival. Beyond the volume story of being the world's second-largest producer, the push to train and showcase \"people who can judge flavor\" is spreading from central Ho Chi Minh City to regional cities. For Japanese food and beverage makers, it's a reason to rethink Vietnam not as a mere cheap sourcing base but as an origin with people who can assess quality.<\/p>\n