Sơn Farm - Specialty Coffee Farm by Sơn Pacamara — Attraction in Da Lat City

We 3 families came here last week and were quite disappointed with the experience after we read many great reviews here.

Pros: Staff / Volunteeers are friendly. Kids allowed.

Cons: The staff spoke English not so well so we hardly did understand not ask much about the coffee knowledge promised in the tour. The knowledge about Arabica could be found online easily so we do expect to experience more at the farm while we are there to know the process or at least, like some here said they can harvest or try differentiate types/varieties of beans but all we had were listening to her in 30 mins without proper structure of the tour and 30 mins we went to a little (very dirty) corner as fermentation process (without really understanding or experiencing as advertised because she cant speak english clearly about it or cant answer our questions) and a small backyard garden to see a couple of coffee trees with zero hands on experience, just looking at them said this is expensive Geisha tree and thats it. We thought we could meet the founder and hear the vision and backstory of him and the farm while truly being a farmer experiencing each part of the process. On the phone, website and social pages you promised us so. But no we were given someone who just told generic things about coffee and we sit like students in classroom NOT at a farm with interactive experiences.

We are 6 people really really passionate about Arabica and farm to cup movement so we do expect the team to keep the experience as the first day you started it, dont try to cut down on quality once you have more reputation and customers demands because we trusted you and your team so we came so far from US but you just give us any random young volunteer and we were treated like. We canceled our full day trip after that just because the half day one was very veryl ill-organized and none of your promises on farm experience was given to us. How come farm to cup movement is compressed into one shot of coffee then all internet knowledge lecturing , and called it experience? Please be committed to your promise of quality even you get more fame. Dont outsource it to anyone who can break your reputation just because of taking advantage of the fact that many many more people love Arabica and coffee farms experience. We do NOT recommend this tour and are very sad about trusting you so much...

Knowing that I was interested in coffee and travelling to Dalat, my dear friend recommended me to visit this farm after receiving a positive review from her relative. And now I confirm that I have had a blissful day tour with Sơn in his farm where he devotes immense time and effort producing Vietnamese specialty coffee.

I am never a coffee professional but a fresh specialty coffee lover since 2 years ago. Barely sit still and learn about coffee on my own; ended up every time trying my luck in coffee shops. So when I had decided spend a whole day in a coffee farm, I was sincerely hoping that I could takeaway some knowledge and help myself find my cup coffee in the future.

“When god closes one door, he opens another.” Very unluckily I signed up the tour on a heavily stormy day yet very luckily turned out I had the opportunity to have a private tour with Sơn. Having known that I was pretty much a blank page, Sơn gave me a theoretical lecture from sketch and patiently answered all my questions in detail, a way that “coffee babies” would understand. Besides the theoretical part, roasting, cupping and brewing in practice were absolutely interesting and worth the time to experience. By practice, I got to oversee some key processes of coffee production and learned what makes a cup of good coffee and why some coffee failed expectations.

A single day wouldn’t make me a coffee expert as if no brewer cup champion was made in a day. So I will definitely pay another visit to Sơn and his farm and continue exploring the depth and breadth of coffee.

Lastly, may you all coffee lover reading this review a great tour in this passion-driven coffee farm and enjoy the Vietnamese...

Incredible experience with Sơn, the owner and titular character! I opted for the "basic" coffee farm tour, which is 200k VND per person. The "basic" tour begins with an eye-opening (and humorous) educational, lecture-style session during which we were told that Starbucks and Highlands Coffee are undrinkable and unfit for human consumption based on rigorous rating requirements. Sơn provided ample opportunity to ask questions. Following the tour, the group was walked down to check out the coffee garden in which we were amongst the trees tasting fresh beans that were bursting with flavor.

My dad and I loved the tour so much we decided to extend our tour from the "basic" tour to the "roasting" tour, which is 600k VND per person (though Vietnamese national guests might be able to obtain a cheaper price). This was the true highlight of the experience in which each of us roasted coffee beans to our heart's content (we got to choose light, medium, or dark roast) following some rigorous classification characteristics. Worksheets were provided and we identified 8 different stages of the roasting process based on aroma and color.

Sơn was very accommodating. However, I wish there were a system in place to book tours with a real schedule. I felt like we just showed up and it happened to be with other people who happened to show up around the same time. But I think that's a little annoying with people showing up at random intervals. In the future, I would appreciate having an online booking mechanism so we can know exactly when the tour starts and ends, and so that we aren't interrupted by any other guests who happen to randomly show up halfway...