Hunting liberica
In 2016, Hana Chai came home to Saigon from Seoul with SCAE roaster/brewer/barista certification and a small experiment above a chocolate shop: “96B Experiment”. Ten years on, 96B is a roastery, a café and a training school — with one unchanged obsession: Liberica.
Hana started roasting and brewing in 2014, trained at the SPC Coffee Academy in Seoul (2015). In 2017, the team and a Da Lat farm produced their first fermented natural lot; Hana travelled the Central Highlands hunting Liberica — one of the rarest coffees in the world.
In 2020, Thai Dang joined as co-founder: a full renovation, a rebrand into 96B cafe & roastery — the gray concrete facade, the chunky rounded 96B sign, and the signature lowercase voice: cold therapy, everyone deserves good coffee.
Since 2022, 96B has pioneered coffee education with 10 workshops — sensory, latte art, roasting, Vietnamese coffee culture. The green-bean export arm 96b.coffee carries the mission “redefine vietnamese coffee”: Liberica, Robusta and Arabica grown and processed in Vietnam.
“Enjoying coffee is to drink with an open mind — to appreciate the terroir and the hard work by each individual. There is no right or wrong in coffee.” — Hana Chai