Our story
It all starts with love.
We’re Matko and Eva Lin. We like to say that everything starts with love—and for Viet Drip, it began with ours.
Through Eva Lin and her Vietnamese family, Matko discovered Vietnam’s food, language and culture. The stories, meals and conversations sparked a desire to experience the country together.
That journey would eventually lead to a coffee bike, a stack of little red stools and our own small corner of Vietnam in Amsterdam.
- 2018–2019Ten months living in Vietnam
- Summer 2024A return trip and the idea for Viet Drip
- August 2024Our first coffees in Oosterpark
Finding our rhythm in Vietnam
Three months in Saigon. Seven in Hanoi.
In September 2018, we arrived in Vietnam with plans to spend about a year there. We stayed for ten months: three in Ho Chi Minh City and seven in Hanoi.
For Eva Lin, the country was connected to her family and her Vietnamese grandmother. For Matko, the curiosity that began through her family grew into a love for everyday life there.
Matko first fell in love with Vietnam’s street café culture over a glass of trà đá. Sitting on a little plastic stool, sipping iced tea, practising Vietnamese with the locals and watching life unfold on Saigon’s busy streets became one of his favourite everyday rituals. Cà phê sữa đá came later, beginning his love for Vietnamese coffee—but trà đá remains his favourite drink to this day.
We loved the vỉa hè cafés—the informal coffee spots along the pavements. A slow-dripping phin, a conversation, and time to watch the street come to life around us.
Keeping the connection
Vietnam stayed with us.
Afterwards, we moved to Amsterdam for our studies. Matko missed Vietnam deeply: the food, the language, the people and the small routines that made Vietnam feel so special.
He kept speaking Vietnamese, visiting Vietnamese restaurants and finding community wherever he could. A conversation in Vietnamese or a familiar flavour could bring back a little of that feeling.
Over time, the wish to keep that connection alive grew into an idea we could share with others.
The idea takes shape
From an afternoon in Đà Nẵng to Oosterpark.
We returned to Vietnam in the summer of 2024. A friend introduced Matko to YSIM, a coffee roaster in Buôn Ma Thuột. Their conversations about coffee, roasting and his ideas helped make the plan feel possible.
One afternoon by a pool in Đà Nẵng, Matko sat down and worked out how to bring it to life: a coffee bicycle, the name Viet Drip, and what we would need to start serving in Amsterdam.
Back in the Netherlands, we got the basics together and began. In August 2024, we brought our coffee bike to Amsterdam’s Oosterpark.
Viet Drip grew alongside Matko’s work as a physiotherapist, through weekends in the park, conversations with customers and familiar faces returning for another cup.
“It’s a way to stay connected to Vietnam, to my wife’s heritage, and to a country that shaped me.”
Matko Kmezić, co-founder of Viet Drip
Finding the flavour
A taste we knew and wanted to share.
Matko never took a formal coffee workshop. He learned through brewing with a phin, watching how coffee was made in Vietnam and experimenting with the flavours he remembered.
We developed our recipes by tasting, adjusting and trying again. Eva Lin’s sweet tooth came in handy when finding the balance with condensed milk.
Today, we use 100% Vietnamese robusta, roasted in the Netherlands, and brew with traditional phin filters. We value our customers’ feedback, especially when Vietnamese customers tell us our coffee reminds them of home.
The people around the coffee
Every connection means something to us.
We love introducing someone to their first Vietnamese coffee, hearing memories of Vietnam, and seeing people settle onto a little red stool for a chat.
It means a great deal when Vietnamese customers tell us that a familiar flavour reminds them of home. Others remember a trip, a neighbourhood or a coffee they drank while traveling or staying in Vietnam. Some are discovering it all for the first time.
These conversations have helped make Oosterpark feel like our home. Seeing people return, bring their friends and share their own stories is one of the nicest parts of what we do.
A taste of home, a memory of Vietnam, or a first introduction to a culture we love. We’re grateful to be part of those moments.
Where we go from here
More ways to share the coffee and the culture.
The coffee bike is where Viet Drip began. Through coffee beans, phin filters, bottled coffee, pop-ups and collaborations, we’re finding more ways for people to enjoy Vietnamese coffee with us and make it at home.
As we grow, we also hope to build closer relationships with coffee growers in Vietnam. It’s a direction we want to work towards, alongside helping Vietnamese coffee get the recognition we believe it deserves.
Explore working with Viet DripWe’d love to meet you
Come by for Vietnamese coffee!
Our regular spot is Oosterpark in Amsterdam Oost. We are open 3 days a week: Friday-Saturday-Sunday, 10:30-16:00. Whether Vietnam is your home, a place you miss or something you’re curious about, we’d love to welcome you.
Check Instagram for our latest opening updates, weather changes and pop-ups.