It's over, baby!

Customers waiting to buy coffee from Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen at alley 499 Ba Hat, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City

It's not that they make things difficult for the customers, but if they're late, they'll run out, and if they want to wait, it takes a long time to make the coffee, so they have to be patient. They don't want to keep the customers waiting, so they say "It's all gone!" unless the coffee is ready.

So how about if you want to drink coffee from them? Of course you have to go early, around 6am, to wait because they said they left the house before sunrise. There are many customers who are patient and wait for the right time to come just to have them make a cup of coffee.

My grandparents had a charcoal stove to boil water on, then brew coffee with an aluminum filter. They took care of every little thing, watching the coffee drip and preparing everything so that when the coffee was ready, they could make coffee for the guests. Seeing them work, everyone could see that the cup of coffee they drank was truly precious because of the meticulousness, patience, neatness and the heart that was put into it. So those who did not have the chance to drink it left happy, not sad, because "I will come back next time".

Takeaway coffee shared by young people online

On social networking sites, young people often share pictures of the coffee they bought from their grandparents with a tone of pride and happiness as if it were an expensive cup of coffee. In fact, the coffee their grandparents bought was very cheap, but the price was expensive because of what their grandparents put in it.

Over time, people will no longer see grandparents brewing coffee on aluminum filters and then making coffee for customers, but will see coffee in glass bottles. They brew it at home because they are no longer strong enough to do all the steps like before.

Have you had it yet? Enjoy the unique taste of our grandparents' coffee and it will be gone by 10 o'clock!

(Entry to the contest "Impressions of Vietnamese coffee and tea" under the program "Honoring Vietnamese coffee and tea" for the 2nd time, 2024 organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).