On a latest Friday, I walked into OZO Espresso Roasters in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado. With just a few areas throughout town, OZO cafés are the kind of place the place baristas commonly gush about how a lot their rotating single-origin espresso tastes of strawberries or papaya. However in a task reversal, I’d introduced in beans for them to attempt—a spread known as liberica from 96B, a café and roastery in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam. It’s nearly by no means seen in espresso outlets, and not one of the workers had ever tasted it earlier than.
The roastery’s espresso nerds began pulling out the beans, sniffing and chewing them as they arrange a cupping, the industry-standard manner espresso professionals style and charge espresso. How would this liberica stand as much as the remainder of OZO’s choices? We floor the beans, poured them into glasses, and sniffed. “Bizarre… very candy… winey,” a workers member pronounced. I cautiously provided that I smelled brownie batter. “Oh yeah,” one other staffer replied. He pulled me over to a framed household tree of common espresso varieties and identified that liberica wasn’t even on there. It’s in a class all its personal.
This distinction is what first caught the eye of Hana Choi, one of many founders of 96B. Born in Vietnam, Choi grew up getting ready to take over the household enterprise (making packaging supplies), however she beloved espresso—a passion she shared together with her father. The 2 would purchase contemporary beans to roast at residence and go to neighbors who farmed espresso to tour their gardens. A number of years after graduating with a level in worldwide enterprise, Choi informed her mother and father she was going to work in espresso as a substitute.
In 2015, whereas learning at SPC Espresso Academy in Seoul, Korea, Choi learn a e-book that overviewed the totally different species of espresso beans. In fact there was arabica, the premium bean served at nearly all upscale espresso outlets. And there was robusta, the less-prestigious, higher-caffeinated bean used primarily in prompt espresso mixes, and which makes up greater than 95 % of Vietnam’s prodigious espresso crop. However there was one other species she’d by no means heard of: liberica. “The way in which [the author] put it was like, ‘Once you attempt it as soon as, it’s a life-long lasting expertise,’” Choi says. “However there was no further data. Simply that it’s very distinctive and really particular. In order that caught in my head.”
When Choi began 96B in 2016, Ho Chi Minh Metropolis had solely a handful of specialty espresso outlets. They roasted arabica beans imported from locations like Guatemala and Ethiopia and customarily prevented robusta, which had a status for missing the previous’s subtlety and depth of taste. However Choi wished to champion Vietnamese-grown espresso and invested in costly roasting tools to enhance the standard and number of the brew.
That’s when she began looking for liberica. The title is a reference to Liberia, the West African nation the place the species possible originated, however she was fairly certain it grew in Vietnam. With some web looking, she discovered images of “a really massive, large tree” with large leaves that seemed fully not like arabica, which regularly grows to simply six toes. Most farmers she spoke with had by no means seen timber like that, however one acknowledged them, saying he thought they grew in a hotter, lower-elevation area. He had a relative there who known as it “jackfruit espresso.”
Choi drove down with buddies and met the relative, who toured them round and identified towering timber—the truth is, Coffea liberica—rising by the village gate. Individuals used the timber as fencing and shade for different crops, however he’d by no means tasted or harvested the fruits. Choi had by no means tasted liberica espresso both, however she paid the farmers to reap it for her.
Working with a poorly documented and comparatively unexplored bean meant ranging from scratch in some ways. The primary 12 months Choi made liberica espresso, she didn’t assume it was adequate to serve by itself; she solely provided it as a mix with native arabica beans. However she was decided. She and her cofounder, Thai Dang, who joined 96B in 2017, invested in higher harvesting and manufacturing strategies and tried out totally different roasts and preparations, reminiscent of fermenting the espresso cherries for one, two, and three days to seek out the perfect length. They paid for clear water to clean the beans and for raised nets so the farmers didn’t must dry liberica espresso cherries on the bottom. They realized that, regardless of many espresso aficionados’ choice for tremendous “contemporary” espresso, liberica appeared to get higher with age—each the inexperienced and roasted beans.
Thanks to those iterative enhancements, Choi and Dang began promoting unblended liberica espresso in early 2021. In the present day, they promote baggage of the beans to espresso distributors and direct to customers. “It actually shines in milk-based drinks,” Dang says, “as a result of it’s so candy.” The 96B café menu now options the Liberica Expertise: a mini cappuccino and a mini espresso to style it with and with out milk, plus an choice so as to add a mini chilly brew.
Currently, Choi and Dang have been garnering consideration for serving to put this bean on the map, and for celebrating Vietnamese espresso extra broadly. The New York Occasions included 96B of their information to the finest espresso in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis (although, notably, with no point out of liberica), and the celebrated specialty roaster Blue Bottle has provided liberica at one-off tastings in Kyoto, Japan, and Seoul after a go to to 96B. However Choi and Dang are now not liberica’s sole heralds. Different farmers and roasters in Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines at the moment are promoting the beans, and a few barista opponents have gone on to win awards with brews constructed from it.
However there’s a extra unsettling pattern that might quickly bolster liberica’s progress: the local weather disaster. Arabica is a notoriously finicky crop. It prefers cool highlands, and the world over the crops are succumbing to extreme warmth and drought. Main espresso gamers reminiscent of Nestlé and World Espresso Analysis are exploring methods to breed sturdier and higher-quality robusta; some celebrated espresso areas, reminiscent of Minas Gerais, Brazil, have even replanted with robusta fully.
Liberica, nevertheless, naturally thrives in hotter areas, and its deep roots discover water extra simply than arabica and presumably robusta, although little or no analysis has been carried out on liberica. Dang and Choi have visited espresso farms the place drought has killed off arabica and robusta however left liberica timber hale and wholesome—a promising signal for the bean’s business future.
At OZO, as we started our cupping, I suspected 96B’s liberica may rating poorly. Choi has had lower than a decade to good her course of, and the scoring methodology we’d be utilizing was developed particularly for arabica beans. Plus, espresso drinkers’ palates and expectations have been formed by many years of ingesting arabica. Wouldn’t it have been extra honest to the beans—and to 96B—to attempt the liberica in a cappuccino or chilly brew?
As an alternative, the workers merely poured scorching water over the bottom beans. After a quick wait, we dipped our spoons, sipped, and commenced discussing: “Very clean, nearly no bitterness,” one remarked. Everybody agreed it was very candy. Some in contrast the style to black sesame cookies; others to hoisin sauce and even duck. For me, the strongest notes had been of melon. And for the reason that espresso wasn’t as sturdy as arabica or robusta (liberica appears to have a decrease caffeine content material), the expertise felt a bit like sipping tea.
Every espresso was scored primarily based on standards reminiscent of acidity, physique, and sweetness (which everybody ranked 10 out of 10) earlier than the whole thing was averaged for a rating out of 100. The only-origin coffees OZO sells often rating between 85.5 and 88; the liberica beans scored simply above 86, holding their very own towards arabicas fastidiously sourced from world wide. As we completed up, the workers inspired staff who’d been busy roasting in one other room to attempt the final drops of the pours we’d ready. “It’s not going to overhaul Ethiopia,” one of many roasters mentioned. But it surely’s “approachable, advanced, distinctive…It doesn’t remind me of the rest.”
