Weasel poop coffee is a big thing here. Vietnam already has a huge coffee culture with its French influence and being the second largest coffee exporter in the world. The way it works is that weasels poop out the coffee beans that are used to make the coffee. It is perfectly sanitary and safe; the beans are already clean due to the weasels’ strict diets and then the beans are roasted at a high heat. At Me Linh Coffee Garden you can even meet the weasels, and there is a fun garden area with neat little photo spots overlooking the valley below.

Cost: $5-6 USD

Duration: 2-3 hours

Commute: 30 minute drive

GETTING THERE

Me Linh Coffee Garden is located a quick 30 minute drive from the Da Lat city center. We opted to rent a motorbike, but taxi and bus options are available as well. You can find its location here.

MY EXPERIENCE 

When we arrived at the coffee garden we decided to pay a little extra so that we could have the full experience and access the entire gardens. (For just ordering coffee and visiting the weasels they charged 120k VND or $5 USD, and full access to the gardens was just 145K VND or $6 USD.) We sat at a bar-top overlooking the valley below as we waited for our coffee to steep through the coffee grounds—or the processed weasel droppings. When it was finally ready, I stirred in some sweetened condensed milk and bravely took a sip. It was actually fantastic, and also some of the strongest coffee I have ever tasted. Who would’ve thought. We were then given complimentary warm golden tea, which tasted almost as good as the coffee!

After we finished our coffee, we got another one to go and walked down to the cages where the weasels were. Most of them were asleep, but a few watched us intently as we walked by. It was really funny to sip on our coffee in the presence of the very weasels that had pooped out the coffee beans. At this point we were really feeling the caffeine so we walked over to the playground area in the garden and messed around for a bit taking fun photos. Then we made our way around back towards the cafe area, stopping along the way at the photo spots. We spent our last 30 minutes reading and playing chess.