Northwest Highlands

Sơn La and Điện Biên sit a long way north of the Central Highlands, close to the Lao border, and they grow a different crop: Arabica only, on a small fraction of the national area, washed rather than dried in the fruit, and planted largely to Catimor.

Northern Vietnam has a genuine cool season, and the harvest here runs later and longer than in the south — November into March rather than a few concentrated weeks.

Washed and light on its feet — citrus and pale stone fruit over a medium body, with a clear acidity the Robusta regions have nothing like.

Steep mountain country rather than the broad plateaus of the south, with the coffee on hillsides and in the valleys between them.