Nhung Hoang champions the immigrant experience at Cội Nguồn: Origin Coffee

Nhung Hoang of Cội Nguồn: Origin Coffee // Photo by Sarah Sipple

A coffee shop in Kansas City with no espresso machine sounds like a risk, but Nhung Hoang has a compelling reason to take that plunge.

When Hoang lost her brother in 2023, she made the most of the devastating curveball and let her brother’s final advice text to her guide her next move. She pressed pause on her computer science major and went all-in with her coffee business, Cội Nguon: Origin Coffee.

Hoang’s brother, Timothy, saw her passion and talent and encouraged her to take a break from school and see where her coffee ideas could take her. A few months later, his unexpected heart attack made his belief in her become part of his legacy. When Hoang realized the role that stress played in his passing, specifically immigration-related stress, she saw her life in a whole new way: 

“It made me realize that it’s not just me, it’s not just our family going through this. A lot of it comes from not having a third space for the immigrant community here. People can come in, speak Vietnamese, and feel like they’re a part of something. Maybe we can help take 50% of the burden off of the Tim’s out there.” 

Nhung Hoang of Cội Nguồn: Origin Coffee // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Hoang was born in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam, and immigrated to the U.S. with her family in 2012. With Cội Nguon: Origin Coffee, she intends to not only provide a third space for KC’s Vietnamese community, but specifically to engage the younger generations in ways she didn’t have. “I always hoped for a space where I could speak the language I knew and not feel ashamed, read the folklore, eat and drink the snacks that were so familiar to me–a place to belong without assimilating,” Hoang shared in a Facebook post to her business page. 

After years of supplying Vietnamese coffee drinks to friends, family, and eventually customers at a variety of pop-ups, Cội Nguon: Origin Coffee’s brick-and-mortar will celebrate its grand opening on June 1.

The design choices Hoang made at the shop aim to replicate the nostalgic feeling of visiting a coffee shop in Saigon, especially knowing that many immigrants aren’t able to return to their home country. Serving salted coffee, egg coffee, ca phe sua da, and sourcing furniture and decor from Vietnam helps complete the experience. 

Hoang welcomes non-English-speaking Vietnamese people from around Kansas City, and introduces the rest of us to something new. Part of that new may be the phin filter style of coffee, rather than an espresso pull or drip brew. The process is slower, which means cafes like this need to maintain phin cycles rather than making each one individually. Vietnamese phin brewing results in a potent coffee, with a lower volume compared to drip brew.

Salted coffees at Cội Nguồn: Origin Coffee // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Hoang shared on the coffee shop’s Facebook page:

“More than just preserving our heritage and culture, more than the art of coffee, Origin needed to keep our story alive—the story of people like my brother, my family, and others like us. Because in this land where immigrants live on the outskirts of society, who will tell our story if not us?” 

A common Vietnamese experience is even reflected in the name. For the sake of assimilation, many immigrants adopt a new American name during the citizenship process, leaving them with two names. 

“Origin embodies that. We have two names. Cội basically translates to ‘origin’, while Nguon is ‘root’, like the root of who you are, or the source,” says Hoang.

In fact, the idea to name it beyond simply Origin is also credited to her brother.

Cội Nguon: Origin is located at 7711 N Oak Trafficway Suite A, Kansas City, MO 64118.