A Coffee Shop That Honors Where Coffee Begins
Vietnam Chapter
This past weekend, members of IWCA Vietnam visited Wecacha Coffee & Tea in Son La, the new coffee shop opened by Ms. Hoang Huong, an IWCA Vietnam member. The shop itself tells a story about where coffee actually comes from.
The space feels deliberate. The décor reflects Northwest Vietnam—wood, lighting, scent—designed to bring the highlands into the cup. Multiple entrances welcome visitors the way Northwest communities have always welcomed guests. It's a small design choice that means something.
The menu focuses on Son La Arabica coffee, prepared in ways that highlight local flavors. One drink, called "Yen Pieu," has become particularly talked about for blending unique preparation with familiar tastes. These aren't generic specialty drinks. They're rooted in the specific terroir and culture of the region where the coffee grows.
What made the opening notable was the presence of supply chain partners—the people who've worked alongside Son La Arabica throughout its journey from farm to cup. These relationships don't always show up in retail spaces, but they were visible here.
The visit matters because it reflects something IWCA Vietnam has worked toward: women coffee farmers seeing their work valued beyond the farm gate. When a woman farmer can walk into a coffee shop and see her community's coffee featured prominently, prepared with care, celebrated for its distinct qualities—that's market access showing up differently than it usually does.
Ms. Hoang Huong isn't just selling coffee. She's positioning Son La Arabica as something worth seeking out, worth understanding, worth paying attention to. That positioning creates value that travels backward through the supply chain to the women growing the coffee.
Coffee shops can be commodity buyers or they can be bridges. Wecacha is choosing to be a bridge—between the Northwest highlands and coffee drinkers, between cultural heritage and contemporary preparation, between women farmers and the recognition their work deserves.
IWCA Vietnam's presence at the opening wasn't ceremonial. It was relational. These are the connections that make the network function—women supporting women's businesses, supply chain partners showing up for each other, origin stories staying connected to origin places.
The shop will succeed or not based on its coffee and its customer experience. But it's starting from a foundation that understands where coffee comes from and who grows it. That understanding changes what's possible.