Stone Village Coffee Lab teaches Vietnamese phin brewing inside a coffee growing region, not in a city cafe. The Lab sits at 154 Vo Thi Sau, Mang Den, Quang Ngai province, surrounded by Arabica farms, and has been an SCA Premier Training Campus and a CQI In-Country Partner since 2021. You can join a two-hour experience class, or a one-day foundation course if you want the full method.

Two ways to learn

	Experience class	Foundation course
Length	2 hours	1 day, 6 to 8 hours
Fee	See the fee and book	Contact the Lab for a quote
Best for	Travellers with half a day in Mang Den	Cafe owners, baristas, serious home brewers
You brew	One phin, one iced milk coffee, a tasting flight	Three recipes across four roast levels and several origins
When	Every Saturday and Sunday, 09:00 or 14:00	Scheduled on request for small groups
Details	Experience class page	PHIN VIET Foundation course

Both are taught in English and Vietnamese. Neither is an SCA or CQI certification; those are separate international courses on the training schedule.

What you actually do in the class

• Start in the garden. You see ripe cherries on the branch, how selective picking works, and what a green bean looks like before roasting.
• Smell the difference. Green beans, then roasted beans at different roast levels. Most visitors have never smelled the two side by side.
• Brew your own phin. A trainer stands next to you and corrects grind, water temperature, bloom and drip time as you go.
• Make ca phe sua da. You mix your own cup and taste two coffee to condensed milk ratios to find the one you actually like.
• Taste side by side. The same coffee brewed three ways, so you can say why you prefer one, not just that you do.

Why learn phin at origin instead of in a cafe

Most phin classes hand you a bag of pre-roasted coffee and teach the motions. Nobody tells you where that bag came from. Here the chain is in one place: the farm, the drying beds, the sample roaster and the cupping table. When your cup turns out sour or burnt, you learn to tell whether the problem came from the bean or from your hands. That distinction is the difference between following a recipe and understanding one.

The teaching team is led by Nguyen Van Hoa, who holds a CQI Q Instructor credential and teaches under the SCA system. The same lab runs five-day professional courses in green grading, roasting and sensory work every month, and the phin classes use the same equipment and the same coffees.

Getting to Mang Den

Mang Den is a cool highland town in Quang Ngai province, central Vietnam, at around 1,200 metres. It is one of the few places in the country where Arabica grows well, and it is roughly a two-hour drive from Kon Tum city or Pleiku. Most visitors come for the pine forests and lakes, then discover the coffee. If you are planning a trip, see coffee experiences and tours in Mang Den.

Booking

Book at least one day ahead so the Lab can prepare the tasting samples. Groups should give more notice so a private session can be arranged.

• Address: Stone Village Coffee Lab, 154 Vo Thi Sau, Mang Den, Quang Ngai, Vietnam
• Phone: (+84) 966 005 189 or (+84) 909 667 003
• Email: hoagreencoffee@gmail.com
• Open: every day, 08:00 to 17:00

More on Vietnamese phin coffee

Our English guides to the phin, written by trainers at a coffee lab inside a Vietnamese growing region.

• How to brew Vietnamese phin coffee
• What is a Vietnamese phin
• Ca phe sua da, Vietnamese iced coffee
• PHIN VIET Foundation, the one-day course

Frequently asked questions

Do I need any coffee experience?

No. The two-hour class is built for complete beginners, including travellers who have never brewed anything at home.

Is the class taught in English?

Yes, in English and Vietnamese. Groups who want a session entirely in English should say so when booking.

What does the class fee include?

The fee for the two-hour experience class includes the coffee and all equipment used in class, and is shown on the class booking page. The one-day foundation course is quoted separately.

Do I get a certificate?

The two-hour class is an experience session with no certificate. The one-day course ends with a Stone Village Coffee Lab certificate of completion, which is a school certificate rather than an SCA or CQI certification.

Can I buy the coffee I tasted?

Yes. The Lab works directly with farms in the region, and you can buy roasted coffee or green beans after the class.

Sources

• Specialty Coffee Association, training campus programme and Coffee Skills Program, sca.coffee
• Coffee Quality Institute, Q programme and In-Country Partner network, coffeeinstitute.org