Marc, Thao and Chappi's Dream

That beautiful dream is being nurtured by the couple Zihlmann Marc - Nguyen Le Thach Thao and the K'Ho residents every day in the middle of the village, the coffee plantations and the mountains of Da Chais (Lac Duong, Lam Dong). Although the initial idea was inspired by the song of musician Tran Tien, they have turned it into reality with the name Chappi Lac Duong Arabica Coffee Cooperative and the brand Chappi Mountains Coffee. Although they still face many difficulties, I still want to tell an optimistic story about the aspirations of interesting people in the middle of the great land...

The author talks with Zihlmann Marc (right) at Chappi Mountains Coffee

Why Chappi? I asked. Thach Thao, one of the two owners of the Chappi Mountains Coffee brand, smiled gently and said: “Marc and I both like the way the story is told in the song that musician Tran Tien wrote about the bamboo instrument of the Raklay people. It is realistic but also very romantic. The life of the highlanders appears in it as an image of overcoming the lack of material reality, reaching for generosity, freedom and full of emotions”. As if in harmony with his wife, Marc - a man from Switzerland, sang the melodies of the song “Chappi’s Dream” in his broken Vietnamese. I felt that the two main characters in the beautiful dream I was telling with their aspirations to build a career, their love story and their current life were in emotional harmony with the lyrics and melody of the song that they borrowed the name for their brand.

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Marc and Thao chatted with me over cups of hot Arabica coffee with the aroma of basalt. The story began with Nguyen Le Thach Thao. This 8X generation owner studied abroad and worked in another field, which brought her opportunities for advancement and a stable income. However, the reminiscence of the scent of the coffee batches that her parents used to roast in her hometown of Lam Ha, which Thao had absorbed deeply into her sense of smell during her childhood, drew her back to her family's old profession. More than ten years ago, Thao launched a line of roasted coffee under the brand name Lam Ha Bio Coffee. She provides products to domestic and foreign customers with many distribution systems, including using online platforms, selling on reputable sites such as lazada, shopee, sendo...

Then there is the story of Zihlmann Marc. This man was born in 1973 in Zurich - Switzerland, the largest economic center of this Central European country. Marc's father, Josef, is a veterinarian and his mother, Kathariha, works in the field of social psychology. Marc himself has a master's degree in economics and has worked for many years as a specialist in large banks, investment funds, auditing companies and global corporations. The opportunities for advancement and income are very good, but Marc says he wants a more meaningful life and the middle-aged man has started by "searching for the meaning of life" through many countries.

Marc told me that many years ago, he knew nothing about Vietnam, except for a few Vietnamese restaurants in his hometown. In 2018, he first came to the S-shaped country after going to Singapore. Marc was very surprised to learn that his future wife's homeland is one of the two countries with the largest coffee production in the world with premium products, especially Arabica, which is the type favored by Europeans. Knowing that he was coming to Vietnam, a friend in Switzerland asked him to find pure coffee. He wandered around online shopping sites for many days and that was the chance for Marc to meet Thao. He became curious and gradually learned about the production and processing of coffee of a strange brand from the faraway land of Vietnam... and also learned about the beautiful female owner. The story had a beautiful ending when seven years ago, the Swiss guy decided to quit finance, leave his hometown by the Limmat River to go to the mountains and forests of the Central Highlands. Coming to Vietnam, he has a wife, two children, coffee and a new homeland. Marc said: “I decided to come to Vietnam, and with my wife, I started building a value chain linking organic coffee production. Thao and I want to support ethnic minorities here with jobs, buy high-priced products, contribute to improving living standards and build a developed, sustainable and open community. There are still many difficulties, but we are looking for ways to improve.”

Through the words and actions of Marc and Thao, I feel that they have come together with empathy, from the desire to build the Chappi Mountains Coffee brand. Seven types of coffee products in harmony with locally available medicinal herbs such as cocoa coffee, chocolate coffee, lingzhi coffee, ginseng coffee... are gradually conquering the domestic and foreign markets. Bringing high-quality coffee products to consumers is a success. But the larger goal of this couple is to contribute to creating sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities by organizing people to participate in coffee production according to quality processes and community tourism activities. Marc and Thao work with the people to make coffee and guide them to organize tours to experience production, processing, and brewing at the farm; visit the lives and cultures of indigenous people and explore the majesty of the mountains and forests. During his journey with the people, Marc asked his friend Alex, a fellow Swiss, an expert in the tourism industry, to help train the people in skills. Chappi also received enthusiastic support from the European Union, local authorities and relevant agencies. Dalat University also participated in human resource training.

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They want to rely on the people and rely on nature with the people, and so, environmentally friendly production and business is the way that Marc, Thao and the Chappi Cooperative have chosen. That is to seek sustainable development, sustainable from stabilizing the lives of the people to ensuring product quality and keeping the natural environment less negatively impacted. Thao said: “Our goal is to control the entire value chain, from production on farms to each cup of coffee to ensure the highest possible product quality. The cooperative also buys raw coffee at a higher price than the market, and works closely with members to help them improve their livelihoods”. Up to now, there have been 50 households of the people who are cooperative members with 50 hectares of organic coffee; The cooperative has also coordinated with two Dutch non-governmental organizations (SNV and IDH) to support farmers with fertilizers, technical guidance on cultivation, harvesting, composting and water management. “Up to now, with fresh coffee products, we supply dozens of tons each month outside the harvest season; during the harvest season, it is up to hundreds,” said Macr. Thach Thao also shared that her and her husband's aspiration is to plan and preserve 300 hectares of raw Arabica coffee, while expanding the number of ethnic minority members to hundreds of households. She also said: “To produce coffee according to the world's quality requirements and achieve higher value for Vietnamese coffee products, Chappi has to go through a very long and difficult road. However, my husband and I do not sell raw coffee, but must create complete and perfect product lines.” Marc added: “In the process of guiding farmers in production, we also propose solutions to protect forests, prevent soil erosion and research suitable crop replacements, not being too dependent on coffee trees, and making the best use of their land fund.

However, to be honest, in the process of doing this, we also encountered many difficulties because some people lacked coordination and their labor discipline was not good."

During the initial construction process, Marc - Thao and his associates have achieved remarkable successes: Asia - Pacific Gold Brand with Lam Ha Bio Coffee product lines in 2017; Cup and Certificate of Chappi Moutains Coffee products in Lam Dong province as Asean High Quality Brand in 2018; is an OCOP product that meets 4-star standards in 2020. Currently, Chappi's products are of equal quality to compete with famous brands, and are present in major markets such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang; Chappi coffee has appeared in most major supermarkets and some airports. Coffee samples of the Cooperative have also been sent to introduce in countries such as Germany, England, France, Spain, Slovakia, the Netherlands, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. Switzerland is a market that Chappi wants to target more after the coffee party with Chappi products as the main drink at the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Switzerland in October 2021 in Geneva. In addition to coffee, Chappi is currently also promoting accommodation services and tourism activities to explore and experience...

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When saying goodbye to the hills of Chappi Mountains Coffee, Marc saw me off to the beginning of Tu Poh village. I wondered what attraction made the man from far away Europe voluntarily choose this strange highland as the starting point for the next part of his life. Because of his love for Vietnam, because of his wife named Thach Thao, because of the charming flavor of highland coffee?! Probably because of all of those things. Before saying goodbye, my open and funny friend Marc sang a song about a dream, as if explaining to me his choice: “In that place I saw… on the high mountain… there were two people… only two people in love…”.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202505/marc-thao-va-giac-mo-chappi-5ed67de/