99 years – 1 cup: Liberica coffee

Vietnam is the second biggest coffee producer in the world. While this position was consolidated during the rapid industrial expansion of Robusta in the 1980s and 1990s, the biological foundations of Vietnam’s coffee landscape were laid much earlier — during a time when plants, people, and knowledge were forcibly moved across continents by European colonial rule.

Long before Robusta became an industrial commodity, coffee arrived in Vietnam as a botanical experiment.

Eugène Poilane came to Vietnam first in 1909 while working in the French military in Saigon and stayed there during World War I. But his interest was less about weapons and war and more about plants and bees.

His talent did not go unnoticed. Auguste Chevalier, one of the most influential French botanists of his time, and the scientist who established that Robusta belongs to Coffea canephora, recognized Poilane’s eye, discipline, and curiosity. Under Chevalier’s guidance, Poilane became a botanical prospector for the French National Museum of Natural History.

In 1923, Poilane left the military to dedicate himself fully to plants.

He described countless plant species and built his own plantation in Khe Sanh, in today’s Quảng Trị province. Coffee became a central focus of his work — not as an industrial crop, but as a botanical and agricultural experiment shaped by place.

With the support of Auguste Chevalier, Poilane introduced Coffea liberica and Coffea excelsa (now classified as Coffea dewevrei) to Khe Sanh. These species were barely noticed for decades.

Poilane lived in Khe Sanh until 1964, when he was killed during a misled attack on his vehicle. His death marked the end of a personal chapter, but not the end of the plants he had brought with him.

For decades, Poilane’s coffee plants existed at the margins of Vietnamese coffee history. Industrial canephora took center stage, while Liberica and related species survived quietly, often without recognition or value.

Today, that is beginning to change.

The Vietnamese Liberica revival, visible in exceptional lots from producers such as our partners 96B and Lộc Rừng, is built on genetic material that traces directly back to those early introductions in Khe Sanh. What was once overlooked is now being re-examined with curiosity, respect, and ambition.

When we invited Thai from 96B to travel through Europe with us in November last year, one of the stops on our journey was Paris. Among many encounters and events, one moment stood apart.

Thai, who works with great passion and professionalism in Vietnamese coffee, knew about Eugène Poilane and the history of the plants she has been cultivating in Quảng Trị. Driven by curiosity and respect, she searched for Poilane’s descendants — and eventually found Jean-Marie. After a video call, she invited him to a cupping.

At the Parisian coffee shop The Beans on Fire, the improbable became real. Thai met the grandson of Eugène Poilane. Together, they tasted Vietnamese Liberica — the first time Jean-Marie had ever tasted this coffee species. In that cup were the fruits of his grandfather’s work, carrying a century of dedication, pain, and aspiration, distilled into something profoundly beautiful.

Across the table sat the descendant of the botanist who brought these plants to Vietnam — and a producer who believes in their future.

Moments like this leave us speechless.

They remind us how close the past really is, especially the past of colonialism and agricultural exchange. Coffee, in this chapter of history, is a witness. It bears the scars of forced movement, domination, and erased voices, while at the same time carrying the fragile beauty of survival: plants that adapted, knowledge that endured, and people who transformed what was imposed into something their own.

In this cup, 99 years later, coffee becomes an artifact of history and a tool for reimagining the future.

Full circle.