96B Experiment

26/03/2026

17/03/2026

When approached us to discuss a potential feature on Vietnamese liberica & excelsa in their monthly Vietnam-focused, we were delighted to get to know a travel magazine taking a serious interest in such a niche corner of Vietnamese coffee industry. Instead of exploring the beaten path, our co-founder took TRANSIT’s writer and photographer to our liberica/excelsa region to meet with our partner farmers, share hearty meals, regale stories of the land, and taste fresh coffees brewed at the farm. The article and photos turn out beautifully, and we can’t be more proud to introduce to Japanese audience this wonderful coffee and its story.

08/02/2026

Empires, Fungus, and Wars: An Intimate History of Liberica & Excelsa - a guest post by on blog

https://christopherferan.com/2026/02/08/excelsa-history-96b/

The first time I saw the name Chari was in this striking picture, titled "1920-1929 Phú Tho - Caféier Chari". Next to the intensely-staring Vietnamese man is the unmistakable sight of an Excelsa tree.

My efforts to understand the word Chari has taken me on an unexpected journey, full of convoluted forces, colourful characters, and painful stories. After three years of trying to connect the dots to understand the rise and fall of Liberica (Coffea liberica) and Excelsa (Coffea dewevrei), I have come to learn more about this forgotten chapter of coffee. But more importantly, to know coffee history is to be faced with the history of empires, of colonialism, of forces big and small, systematic and individual, that shape the landscape we are living in today.

Like cinchona, rubber, sugarcane, or tea, the story of coffee is that of colonisation, exploitation, and commoditisation. The history of Arabica and Canephora and how they spread across the globe has been told numerous times, but what is lost in the narrative is the story of other coffee species, how they were brought from their birthplace in Africa to the other side of the earth, their fleeting moments of glory in world commodities, the spark of hope they briefly lighted up, and their swift demise in planters' dreams and practice. These transient stories are more than a curiosity devoured by coffee nerds to impress other nerds at parties (me being one), but function as a tale, cautionary and inspiring in equal measures, for our modern coffee landscape.

For the past few years, interest in Liberica and Excelsa has been growing, yet pop-culture history of these species is shrouded in murky speculation and hasty copy-and-paste sources with little primary research. This piece is my attempt to help you understand these species better, and perhaps, help you embark on a journey to love and understand Coffea even more.

I would like to thank Dr. Aaron Davis, Dr. Stuart McCook, Jean-Marie Poilane, and Christopher Feran for your comments and feedback.

21/01/2026

96B is proud to be the first stop of 2026 origin trip. Together with our new coffee friends from Europe, we kicked off the day with some coffee, before deep diving straight into the fascinating history of Liberica and Excelsa and how these coffees were treated and regarded in Vietnam and around the world. The day continued with cupping of 7 different types of excelsa produced by 96B, followed by a hearty lunch. Afternoon was fully dedicated to roasting excelsa and liberica, as we stressed how important it is to have a different mindset when it comes to a completely new species. And thank you for the surprise gift of racemosa. Our team had a wonderful time and we could only hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did 🥰

05/12/2025

🚨NEW COFFEE ALERT 🚨

96B Liberica Project is back! The eighth drop, LB-PK, is the same coffee used by in his routine for 2025 WBC in Milan. This highly experimental lot utilised Pichia kluyveri (a non-saccharomyces yeast isolated from nature) to enhance the cherries’ natural fruit notes while minimising woody impressions. In conjunction with a pure culture of Lactic acid bacteria (we used Lactobacillus plantarum), we wanted to test if this culture could consume glucose and fructose, supposedly abundant in liberica/excelsa mucilage, to increase lactic acid in the end result.

LB-PK is perfect as an espresso base for a piccolo or a cortado, with notes of brownie, warming spices, stevia, and a silky body.

LB-PK is highly limited. 309k/200gr. You can pick up at our cafe or order via www.96b.co/coffee

23/11/2025

Seeing .cafe.roastery 2025 crop on .coffee shelves was such an emotional moment. If you don’t know TANAT, first of all, how? But seriously, they are at the top of their coffee game for a reason. You only need to visit any of their locations in Paris or take a peek at www.tanat.coffee to know why 😮‍💨. Having our Liberica/Excelsa featured by no.7 cafe at both their bars (as delectable milk-based drinks) and in online & offline shops is a huge honour for a young company like us. (Yes we opened our cafe in 2016 but only started exporting in 2024 😎). Thank you so much and for making this happen. And thank you for your detailed feedback on our new crops. We will keep all your suggestions in mind going into the 2026 crops.

23/10/2025

96B rất tự hào khi 2 lot cà phê vụ 2025 của 96B Liberica Project được dùng trong phần thi World Barista Champion tại Milan tháng 10 này. Jakub Smolka, Barista champion Cộng Hòa Séc, dùng Liberica sơ chế anaerobic natural. Christos Sotiros, champion Thụy Sĩ, dùng Liberica tím sơ chế LAB-PK Black honey.

Dù cà thắng cuộc vẫn hầu hết là Geisha/Gesha; và phần lớn cà dùng trong routine của 54 thí sinh đều từ những vùng đất quen thuộc như Panama hay Colombia, 96B vẫn tin rằng cái tên Việt Nam dần dần sẽ trở nên phổ biến hơn trong những cuộc thi đẳng cấp thế giới.

Các bạn có thể xem performance của Christos và Jakub trên youtube nhé. 2 bài thi đều là những thông điệp rất ý nghĩa về tương lai của cà phê mà chúng mình nghĩ nên được lan tỏa nhiều hơn.

Photos by

17/10/2025

🌏 “Beyond Arabica” Coffee Tasting & Conversation

96B was honoured to participate in the two recent Blue Bottle Coffee internal events, one for APAC and one for US offices, centering on alternative coffee species. Together with Dr. Aaron Davis and our friends at South India Coffee Company, we discussed Excelsa & Liberica, as well as the future of coffee. It was truly enlightening to hear more about Dr. Davis’ efforts in growing and processing Excelsa in Uganda, as well as what Komal and Akshay are doing on their research farm and coffee genetics. We were able to share what 96B has been doing in terms of processing Excelsa/Liberica, and Thai's and Hana's vision for these underutilised but full of potential species.

In 96B’s decade-long journey dedicated to Liberica & Excelsa, there has never been a better time to work on these beloved coffees. Thank you all for your interest, enthusiasm, and open-mindedness.

26/09/2025

September has been a very exciting month to see 96B Liberica Project 2025 crop being simultaneously released in multiple countries across 3 continents.

You can now/will soon find our coffee at these amazing roasteries:
- in Canada (anaerobic natural)
- .caphe in the USA, and at home if you are a subscriber of (anaerobic natural)
- in Germany (anaerobic natural)
- in Switzerland (lactic fermentation)
- .qa in Qatar (anaerobic natural)
- in Japan (anaerobic natural)
- .coffee (anaerobic natural & white honey) and (black honey) in South Korea
- in Hong Kong (anaerobic natural)
- in Singapore (champagne inoculated anaerobic natural)

And if you are a roaster interested in securing green beans:
- in Germany (anaerobic natural, black honey & white honey)
- in South Korea (anaerobic natural & white honey)

October promises to be another ~intriguing~ month with new partnerships and new countries. We are honoured to be able to introduce the endless potential of Vietnamese coffee to so many open-minded customers around the world.

12/09/2025

Thank you for featuring 96B and our Liberica Project, introducing American & international readers to this relatively unknown but full of potential coffee. Thank you, Alex, Mayyasi, for reaching out and for your genuine enthusiasm for Liberica and for our story, and for writing such an insightful article on our beloved coffee.

Full article here: https://www.saveur.com/culture/liberica-coffee-bean-vietnam/

We are so grateful and excited to see how much interest our Liberica has been gathering this year, from consumers, roasters, importers and the media. This autumn, you should find 96B Liberica Project 2025 crop in North America and Western Europe, as our big shipments have arrived or are en route to these destinations.