Total Feeling Handmade Specialty Coffee

25/05/2026

READING HOW THE SEASON ENTERS EACH CUP OF COFFEE

A cup of coffee does not begin in the roastery, behind the bar, or at the cupping table.

It begins in the ancient basaltic soil that has rested beneath the Truong Son mountains for millions of years.
In the old forests that hold water for the land.
In the night mist of Khe Sanh – Huong Phung.
And in the lives of the people who have lived alongside these mountains for generations.

There are seasons when the rains come heavier.
Seasons when the dry winds linger longer.
Seasons when the cherries ripen more slowly as the climate changes.

Yet it is precisely through these imperfect seasons that coffee growers learn to listen more carefully to nature,
to move more slowly,
and to understand that a beautiful cup of coffee is not created by technique alone,
but through respect for the land, the forest, the water, and the people connected to it.

Within the Truong Son Coffee Cultural Landscape,
each coffee lot becomes the memory of a season.

A meeting point between:
• Geology and elevation
• Forest ecosystems, water sources, and climate
• The indigenous knowledge of the Bru–Van Kieu and Pa Co communities
• More than a century of Truong Son Arabica history
• Sustainable agroforestry practices
• And modern sensory science

For Total Feeling, coffee is not simply an agricultural product.

It is a human journey — learning how to live in harmony with nature in order to create something real.
Not loud value.
But value that can be felt quietly in the lingering finish of a clean, layered, and honest cup.

New Crop Cupping 2026, therefore, is more than a tasting session.

It is a moment to read how weather has entered the coffee cherry.
To understand how the environment shapes aroma and flavor.
To trace how an entire season leaves its imprint on every lot.

And in doing so,
to preserve the living memory of Truong Son,
through each harvest that passes by.

Origin – Science – Emotion

Understand the season.
Adapt with nature.
Create lasting value.

24/05/2026

22/05/2026

Among the endless green layers of the Truong Son mountains, the coffee harvest season has never begun with noise.

It begins quietly.

With the soft footsteps of people walking into the farm while the morning mist still rests on the leaves.
With woven baskets carried gently on their backs.
With familiar hands moving slowly along each branch, selecting only the cherries that have become fully red, fully sweet — fruits that have spent enough time living with mountain rain, forest wind, and the cold breath of the highlands.

In Huong Phung, coffee does not grow alone.

It lives beneath the shade of old forest trees.
It grows with the cold winds descending from the mountains at dawn.
With the scent of wet basalt soil after long rains.
And with the streams flowing silently from the headwaters deep inside the forest.

Within that landscape, the Bru Van Kieu and Pa Co people continue to move through each harvest season in the same quiet rhythm their ancestors once did generations ago.

They understand the forest in a different way.

Not as something to conquer.
Not as something to exhaust.

But as the place that keeps water for the streams,
holds soil for the roots,
offers shade during the dry season,
and preserves the peace of the land they call home.

Perhaps that is why coffee from Truong Son carries something deeper within it.

The fragrance of wet leaves after a night rain.
The sunlight slipping softly through layers of trees.
The sound of footsteps moving between coffee rows in the early morning.
And the patience of hands that never wish to take more than what the tree is ready to offer.

Total Feeling was born from emotions like these.

From mornings standing silently in the mountains, listening to the wind passing through the forest while watching farmers gently harvest each ripe cherry by hand.

And slowly realizing that truly meaningful specialty coffee does not begin in the roastery, nor on the cupping table.

It begins with a land that is still alive.
With forests that are still being protected.
With communities that continue to live alongside nature with gratitude and respect.

And with a simple belief:

before creating a beautiful cup of coffee,
one must first learn how to love the land that allowed it to grow.

In Memory of the Liberica Harvest Season — March 2026

22/05/2026

I once believed my life would always belong to technology —
to data, systems, and projects that quietly consumed the years.

Until one day, I found myself in Hướng Phùng.

That morning, the Trường Sơn mountains disappeared beneath a veil of mist.
The wind moved softly through the old forest, carrying the scent of wet earth after the night rain. A local man quietly handed me a cup of coffee brewed from an old phin filter, its metal darkened by time and use.

It was a simple cup of coffee.

No one spoke about specialty coffee.
There were no tasting notes, no elegant words describing flavors or aromas.

And yet, somehow, that small moment stayed with me.

For the first time in many years, I sat still long enough to truly feel the peace of a place.

After that, I kept returning to Trường Sơn.

I walked through coffee hills covered in morning dew, listened to streams running over stone, and watched weathered hands carefully select ripe red cherries beneath the gentle early sunlight.

And slowly, I began to understand:

What made me fall in love with coffee was never just the taste.

It was the people.
The memories.
The quiet soul of the land living behind every coffee bean.

From that moment on, coffee was no longer simply a business to me.

It became a way to preserve the spirit of Trường Sơn —
the scent of earth after rain, the misty mornings, and the beautiful feelings I had found among the mountains and the people there.

And perhaps…

That is how Total Feeling was born.

Not from a business plan.
Not from a market trend.

But from a quiet morning in Trường Sơn,
where I slowly realized that coffee could hold memories, emotions, and the soul of a land within a single cup.

15/05/2026

There are people who see coffee as nothing more than a commodity.

But there are also people who look into a single coffee bean and see:
the rainy season,
the red soil of Truong Son,
sweat,
and an entire human life behind it.

If specialty coffee is explored deeply enough, in the end it is no longer about scores or awards.

It becomes a journey of learning how to respect nature.

Respecting that a coffee seed needs time to grow.
That a piece of land may need many years to heal.
And that farmers deserve to be treated fairly so they can continue staying with the trees they care for.

Sometimes, the true value of coffee is not inside the cup.

It lives in the hands that carefully pick each ripe cherry.
In the patience of the people who devote their lives to the craft.
And in the way people treat the soil, the water, the forest, and one another.

Because in the end,
a beautiful coffee origin is not built by grand marketing campaigns.

It is built by countless quiet people who keep doing the right thing —
long enough,
with enough kindness,
and with enough love for the land they belong to.

Perhaps that is also what Total Feeling has always been trying to preserve along the Truong Son mountain range.

TOTAL FEELING, May 15, 2026.

09/05/2026

From above, Truong Son (Huong Phung, Quang Tri) does not look like a coffee-growing region.

It feels more like a mountain landscape breathing together with coffee.

Here, coffee does not grow alone in cold industrial fields. It grows within the morning mist of the mountains, in the deep red basalt soil after the rain, beneath old forest canopies, and within the quiet daily life of the Bru–Van Kieu and Pa Co people.

Mornings in Huong Phung are often cold.
Clouds slowly drift down from the Truong Son range onto the hillsides.
Birdsong echoes across dew-covered coffee trees.
In the distance, smoke rises gently from small houses hidden in the valley.

There are days standing here when I feel that even the coffee trees carry the breath of the forest.

For generations, the indigenous people of Truong Son have understood something that modern agriculture sometimes forgets:
to protect the soil, you must protect the forest;
to protect water, you must protect the large trees on the mountaintops;
and for coffee trees to live long, humans must learn to live gently with nature.

That is why coffee in Huong Phung has never been just a crop for trade.

It lives with the forest.
It lives with the water sources.
It lives with the memory of this land.

The rainy season softens the soil with water flowing from the mountains.
The dry season slows the ripening of the cherries.
The Lao wind crosses the hills, carrying the harsh breath of Central Vietnam.
And all of it — soil, water, climate, and time — quietly becomes part of the flavor of each coffee bean.

Today, people often talk about specialty coffee through scores, awards, roasting techniques, or equipment.

But the longer I stay in Truong Son, the more I believe:
the greatest value of coffee here is not its cupping score or selling price.

Its true value lies in the fact that,
through so many changes over time,
it still carries the warmth of the mountains and the soul of the land where it was born.

Memories from the final days of April 2026
Xa Ry Village, Huong Phung Commune, Quang Tri, Vietnam

03/05/2026

COFFEE HARVEST SEASON – BRU VÂN KIỀU PEOPLE

Từng trái cà phê được chọn bằng tay.
Không vội. Không lấy hết. Chỉ lấy đủ.

Each cherry is hand-picked.
No rush. Not everything taken. Only what is enough.

Ở Trường Sơn, người Bru – Vân Kiều đã làm điều này từ rất lâu.
Total Feeling học lại, từng chút một.

In Truong Son, the Bru – Van Kieu people have done this for generations.
Total Feeling is learning, step by step.

Giữa rất nhiều cách làm nhanh hơn,
chúng tôi chọn cách làm đúng.

Among faster ways,
we choose the right way.

Cà phê bắt đầu từ sự tôn trọng.
Coffee begins with respect.

⸻

Total Feeling – Truong Son Coffee Cultural Landscape

02/05/2026

THE VALUE OF LIBERICA COFFEE

A Living Heritage of the Truong Son Coffee Culture Landscape

The value of Liberica coffee does not come from any individual, award, or training program.

Liberica is not merely a cultivated crop — it is an integral part of the historical and ecological fabric of the Truong Son coffee landscape.

Between 1918 and 1926, when the French introduced coffee to Khe Sanh – Quang Tri, Liberica was among the earliest varieties planted.
Through decades of war and transformation, these trees have endured, becoming living traces of a land and a historical era.

From a biological perspective, Liberica demonstrates remarkable adaptability:
deep root systems, strong drought tolerance, and suitability for basalt soils and the mountainous terrain of the Truong Son range.

When cultivated appropriately, it becomes more than a coffee tree — it becomes part of a coffee forest system, contributing to shade, moisture retention, soil regeneration, and microbial balance.

In terms of value, Liberica is increasingly being re-evaluated globally as a rare and distinctive specialty coffee, known for its depth, density, and unique flavor profile.
In the context of climate change, it also represents a variety with strong long-term adaptive potential.

However, the greatest value of Liberica lies not in yield or recognition, but in its role within the Truong Son coffee landscape:

* An ecological tree – stabilizing soil, water systems, and microclimates
* A heritage tree – rooted in the history of Khe Sanh and indigenous cultures
* An identity tree – shaping the distinctive flavor of the region
* A future tree – resilient in the face of climate change

Liberica is not a hedge plant.
It is not “jackfruit coffee.”

Liberica is part of the Truong Son coffee forest ecosystem —
a living heritage.

TOTAL FEELING
TRUONG SON COFFEE CULTURE LANDSCAPE

References

* Davis, A. P. et al. (2025). Genomic data define species delimitation in Liberica coffee. Nature Plants.
* Herawati, D. et al. (2022). Profile of Bioactive Compounds, Aromas, and Cup Quality of Excelsa Coffee.
* Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Promoting the commercial growth of Coffea Liberica.