Hi, I’m Ben, Roastery Manager here at Temple, and I’m especially excited to introduce the latest release in our online-exclusive Roaster’s Choice subscription: Vietnam Jade Mountain.
This coffee is particularly meaningful to me. I began my career in coffee in Vietnam, and since joining Temple, I’ve hoped to find a Vietnamese coffee that reflects the quality and character I experienced while working there. Jade Mountain is that coffee.
Vietnam is a true coffee powerhouse. As the world's second-largest coffee-producing country, its influence on the global coffee industry is enormous. Historically, however, that reputation has been built largely on volume rather than specialty production. More than 95% of the country’s coffee is Robusta, a resilient, high-yielding species prized by the commercial market and generally known for a heavier body and bitter flavor profile compared with the Arabica coffees commonly found in specialty cafes.
Arabica represents a much smaller share of Vietnam’s coffee production, making coffees of this caliber relatively rare and all the more exciting to discover.
My time in Vietnam was spent working within this small but growing corner of an enormous coffee industry. Coffee has long been an important agricultural commodity there, but a new generation of producers, roasters, baristas, and coffee drinkers is helping broaden the way Vietnamese coffee is understood and experienced. There is growing attention around quality, provenance, processing, and the distinctive character of Vietnamese-grown Arabica, expanding the story of Vietnamese coffee beyond what the country has traditionally been known for.
Jade Mountain is a beautiful example of that evolution.
In the cup, it opens with a crisp green apple acidity, a character we often associate with coffees from the region. That brightness gives way to the bittersweet depth and gentle spice of roasted cacao nibs, while a soft, underlying cantaloupe sweetness rounds out the profile. The result is a coffee that feels vibrant and distinctive, with a flavor profile that immediately caught our attention on the cupping table.
Vietnam remains a relatively under-explored origin within specialty coffee, which makes sharing this release even more meaningful. For me, Jade Mountain is both a reminder of where my own coffee journey began and a glimpse at where Vietnamese specialty coffee is headed.
We’re incredibly excited to roast Jade Mountain here at Temple and even more excited to share it with you.
