Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply

The Vietnamese-American-owner, importer, supplier and roaster of coffee beans from Vietnam, Sahra is on a mission to make sure that Vietnamese coffee culture gets the respect it deserves.

Before Sahra Nguyen got into the coffee business she found success as a poet, activist, restaurateur and an award winning documentarian. The UCLA graduate has worked with and has been featured in NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Vice, Forbes, Verizon, NYU and TedX as well as been a member of Google Next Gen Leaders Program. A daughter of Vietnamese refugees, she was born and raised in Boston and has called Brooklyn home for her adult life. Interview by Hyun Kim. Photos by Erics Kun

TRENDVUE: Do you consider Nguyen Coffee Supply an Asian American brand or Vietnamese American brand?

SAHRA NGUYEN: I’ve never thought of it that way. I consider the company a premium Vietnamese coffee company and coffee is for everyone. One of the goals of building this company is to bring more diversity to the coffee experience and to the coffee conversation. So our approach is about breaking that up a bit and building a true culture around coffee where it’s people driven and not bean centric. Which is why we talk about the phin filter so much and…