Our connection with Lộc Rừng goes back to 2022, when we first met Kate. She was working at a coffee quality lab focused on green coffee grading and education. She supported us with translations during calls with producers and joined Paul on a road trip to Bảo Lộc in 2023, where they visited Mr. Toi. Not long after, she and her fiancé joined Zanya Coffee to gain hands-on experience in processing and farming. During one of Paul’s regular origin visits, they worked together again for a few days, reconnecting through a shared passion for coffee.

We visited the team at Lộc Rừng in January 2025. Quynh and her father had started an eco-resort near the forest, offering visitors a chance to connect with K’Ho culture through traditional crafts, music, and storytelling. While he focuses on the resort and cultural preservation, Quynh began building up the coffee side, which is soon to become an independent project. She established a small processing station and partnered with K’Ho farmers in nearby villages.

Today, Lộc Rừng employs 15 people year-round, most of them from the local community. During harvest season, the team expands by another 10 to 15 seasonal workers. It’s a truly young and energetic group—Kate, born in 1996, is still the oldest on site.

Lộc Rừng is based in Đưng K’Nớ, a village in Lạc Dương District at around 1,500 meters above sea level. The area is surrounded by the forests of Núi Bà Bidoup. Its hills rise up to 1,850 meters, often shrouded in thick fog that gave the “invisible village” its nickname.

The region is home to many K’Ho families who rely on agroforestry and farming for their livelihoods. Coffee is the main crop here, with over 800 hectares of individual small plots under cultivation.

Lộc Rừng follows sustainable farming principles exclusively. The team uses organic fertilizers and focuses on long-term soil improvement. Layered planting systems, shade trees, and natural compost return nutrients to the soil and encourage biodiversity.

These practices create a clean and healthy environment for crops to grow while protecting the land for future generations. Surrounded by native forest, the microclimate around Lộc Rừng keeps the air clean and biodiversity intact. Fewer pests and a cool climate allow the coffee cherries to ripen slowly, helping develop greater flavor complexity.

Lộc Rừng’s approach is based on quality and fairness. They work directly with farmers from their community and support them with knowledge and resources to improve their farms. It’s a system built on trust and long-term collaboration, aiming to bring stability and create lasting value.

With their own coffee nursery, established in 2023, they grow and share different Arabica varieties with a focus on both quality and crop resilience. The seedlings are shared with their local farming partners.

Arabica was first brought to Vietnam by the French in the 19th century. While most of the country’s coffee production today focuses on Robusta, small pockets of Arabica remain, especially in Lâm Đồng Province.

The high altitude and volcanic soil offer ideal conditions for older varieties like Typica, Bourbon, and Caturra. Coffees from this region are rare and increasingly in demand—both domestically and internationally.

The K’Ho community forms the backbone of coffee farming in the region. In the 1990s, government programs introduced chemical fertilizers and pesticides as a way to fight poverty. Over time, these inputs damaged the land and weakened the plants.

Many K’Ho farmers have since returned to traditional methods—using shade trees, compost, and local knowledge—to restore soil health and protect their farms. It has been a slow recovery, but one that our partners at Lộc Rừng believe is the only way forward.

With Lộc Rừng, we share the goal of helping the K’Ho secure their land and preserve their traditions. This partnership is about supporting a way of life that values sustainability, community, and respect for the environment.

Together, we continue to demonstrate that Vietnamese coffee can indeed be of excellent quality.