History & story.
The World Coffee Museum opened in 2018 within the Trung Nguyen Legend complex in Buon Ma Thuot — Southeast Asia's largest coffee-producing centre. Founded on the initiative of Dang Le Nguyen Vu, founder of Trung Nguyen Group, the museum is the result of over 20 years collecting coffee artifacts from more than 60 countries. The three-storey main building is an enlarged interpretation of the Tay Nguyen longhouse — long sloping roofs, wide timber floors, open verandahs — with over 10,000 square metres of exhibition space. By artifact count and floor area it is the world's largest coffee museum.
The 10,000-plus artifacts are organized across nine thematic spaces following coffee's historical journey from Ethiopia to the world. The first room — 'Origins' — displays 15th–16th-century Ethiopian handmade copper coffee pots alongside a complete traditional Coffee Ceremony set: charcoal brazier, hand-roasting pan, and Yemeni-style tiny cups. 'The Coffee Road' moves through the Ottoman Empire with brass lanterns and 17th-century Mocha cups, into 18th-century Paris where coffee first met milk, then Vienna with filtered coffee and intellectual café culture. The most remarkable gallery holds 100 Italian espresso machines from 1901 to the present — from the 1905 Pavoni steam machine to a 1961 Faema E61 displayed in a recreated Italian café setting.
The Vietnam gallery narrates coffee's arrival in Dak Lak with the French in 1857: Coffea arabica seeds from Bourbon and Typica varieties were planted experimentally in the north before the French discovered that Buon Ma Thuot's red basalt soil and ideal temperatures suited Robusta perfectly. Documentary photographs from 1920–1940 record the earliest French coffee plantations in Dak Lak: Ede labourers hand-picking, rudimentary processing stations, and the first ox-cart convoy carrying coffee down to Saigon.
The museum's ground floor is a direct coffee experience space: visitors choose from 26 single-origin coffees from eight countries, or join a 90-minute hand-roasting class using traditional cast-iron pans. The Weasel coffee experience zone — the world's most expensive coffee type, produced right here in Buon Ma Thuot — has guides who brew each cup through a Chemex funnel with step-by-step technique and historical commentary. Adjacent to the museum is a 5-hectare demonstration coffee garden growing Arabica, Robusta, and Chari (Excelsa) varieties, letting visitors see the coffee plant from seedling to ripe cherry.
Coffee is not just a drink. Coffee is a civilisation. And Buon Ma Thuot is where that civilisation reached its peak in Asia.
Đặng Lê Nguyên Vũ, sáng lập Trung Nguyên Legend / Dang Le Nguyen Vu, founder of Trung Nguyen Legend
Highlights not to miss.
The espresso machine gallery is the museum's most unique highlight: from the 1905 Pavoni steam machine — the first patented espresso maker — through the 1961 Faema E61 (the machine that defined modern espresso preparation), to 1990s automatic machines. Each machine sits in a recreated period café setting complete with period lighting, furniture, and documentary photographs.
The first room displays a complete Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony set: charcoal brazier, small iron hand-roasting pan, wooden mortar, earthenware Jebena pot, and handleless Finjal earthenware cups. A guide performs the full ceremony in traditional sequence, from roasting to pouring the third cup — in Ethiopian custom, a guest must drink all three cups before they may leave the table.
Twenty-six single-origin coffees from Ethiopia, Yemen, Jamaica, Hawaii, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other countries are brewed using each region's traditional method. Buon Ma Thuot Weasel coffee — beans naturally processed through free-range (not caged) civet digestion — ranks among the world's most expensive at over USD 3,000/kg. The 90-minute roasting class teaches cast-iron pan technique and how to read colour and aroma to determine roast level.
Buon Ma Thuot Weasel coffee can only be experienced properly on-site — freshly brewed and still hot. One cup costs around 150,000–200,000 VND, expensive by local standards but cheaper than anywhere else in the world that serves this coffee.
How to visit & get there.
Getting There The museum is inside the Trung Nguyen Legend complex on Hung Vuong Street, 3 km from central Buon Ma Thuot. **Grab or motorbike** (10 minutes from the centre); free parking in the spacious grounds.
Visiting Tips **Book the roasting class** in advance via the Trung Nguyen Legend website — classes are capped at 10 people and fill on weekends. **Allow at least 3 hours** — the ideal pace is 30 minutes per room to read the full commentary. **Buy roasted coffee** at the complex shop — better prices than the street and roasted to order.
Sources
- 1.World Coffee Museum
Trung Nguyen Legend · 2026-06-25
- 2.Bảo tàng Thế giới Cà phê tại Buôn Ma Thuột
VnExpress · 2026-06-25