Phê La brand strategy: Dalat oolong as the core promise

On 8 July 2025, the Phê La fanpage announced that four drinks, Phê Lan, Phê Truffle, Phan Xi Păng and Phù Vân, would stop selling on 16 July. The brand called it a “summer break” for the drinks. According to Cafebiz, most comments below the post were wistful, and a few people saw it as a chance for the chain to create new drinks. On the evening of 11 July, Phê La said it would launch a new “Cà Phê La” (its coffee line) on 17 July (CafeF).

Pulling drinks that Cafebiz describes as “the ones that made its name” is a risky move. Our reading of the Phê La brand strategy: from day one, this Vietnamese tea chain tied its name to an ingredient with an address, Dalat oolong (Dalat is a highland city in southern Vietnam known for tea and flowers). No single cup has to carry the brand, so the chain can let famous drinks rest. But when origin is the promise, the promise has to be true in every cup, and that test gets much harder as the chain grows from 31 to 75 stores.

What does Phê La's brand strategy sell in a market of sweet milk tea?

The first store opened on Phạm Ngọc Thạch street (Đống Đa, Hanoi) in March 2021. Phê La describes itself as “the first and only brand in Vietnam focused on developing Dalat specialty oolong tea” (Cafebiz, 2023). By March 2023 it had 15 stores: 9 in Hanoi, 5 in Ho Chi Minh City and 1 in Dalat, with drinks priced from 55,000 to 65,000 dong.

What Phê La put on the counter was a strong tea flavor, sitting next to the sweet milk teas customers already knew. In September 2024, CafeF wrote that “the trend of bold-flavored milk tea began after Phê La appeared on the market, especially after COVID-19” (CafeF).

The detail we find most worth learning from is the drink names: Phan Xi Păng, Phù Vân, Phê Lan. Phan Xi Păng is the Vietnamese name of Fansipan, the country's highest peak. Ordering that drink means ordering by the name of a mountain, and each order reminds the customer that this tea comes from somewhere. It is like a street noodle stall at the market entrance that posts where its snails are sourced: the customer knows what they are buying, and where it comes from, before the first bite. We have written about the art of storytelling in marketing. Phê La tells its story on the menu, no video required.

Photo by Long (lTiga) Nguyen on Unsplash

What do the numbers say about Phê La's brand strategy?

In 2023, Phê La had revenue of nearly 300 billion dong and profit of more than 50 billion dong, according to Vietdata as reported by VnExpress. One point to read correctly: the near-300 billion figure is revenue for 2023 alone, not a running total since 2021. VnExpress also notes that Phê La only began recording business results in 2023.

Per The Investor, Vietnam Report published a ranking on 17 September 2024 in which Phê La came fifth among reputable coffee and beverage chains, behind Trung Nguyên Legend, Highlands, Phúc Long and Starbucks. That spot used to belong to The Coffee House. Also per The Investor, on 20 September 2024 The Coffee House had 107 stores, almost 40 fewer than at the end of 2023. In the same year, one chain closed stores while the other opened more and climbed the ranking.

Phê La has been opening stores faster and faster: 15 in March 2023, 31 in early September 2024 (Báo Đầu tư), then 75 stores in more than 12 provinces and cities in July 2026, according to a Phê La press release reported by VietnamBiz. The chain's own target is 100 stores in 2026. That means the store count more than doubled in under two years.

Why could Phê La let its signature drinks take a “summer break”?

If customers come for one particular drink, removing it removes their reason to return. If they come for Dalat oolong, Phan Xi Păng is just one of several ways to serve that tea. Think of a family-recipe phở shop: regulars are loyal to the broth, so on a day when the brisket runs out they still sit down and order the rare beef. In our reading, naming drinks after a story and then tying that story to a tea region is how Phê La moved customer loyalty from the drink to the ingredient.

The way Phê La handled it was also deliberate. The announcement came on 8 July, the drinks stopped on 16 July, and customers got more than a week to have one last cup. The words “summer break” leave the door open for a return and sound much softer than “discontinued.” Phê La promised the new “Cà Phê La” for 17 July, one day after the four drinks ended.

We cannot yet say that Phê La dropped drinks and kept its customers. No public data shows whether the removal raised or lowered sales, though the press did record the disappointment. What we can say is that Phê La bet that customers are more attached to the tea than to any single drink. That bet only has a basis when the positioning is clear enough, and a chain that sells by trend would not dare to make it.

When origin is the promise, every new store is a test

In 2026, Phê La changed many things at once. In April 2026, the chain announced its biggest upgrade since launch: temporarily closing several stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to renovate them and install automated counters (CafeF). Phê La's July 2026 press release, reported by VietnamBiz, introduced a new full name, “Phê La – Specialty Tea & Coffee,” and described a 5-year roadmap: V60 pour-over and specialty beans from 2021 to 2022, hand-brew counters from 2024 to 2025, and the Phê Xỉu Vani (a vanilla version of the Vietnamese milk coffee) in 2025. VietnamBiz put the question right in its headline: is adding coffee “expanding the market or diluting the brand?”

One step fits the positioning. That release was issued when Phê La opened a store on Fansipan (Sa Pa). A brand that tells stories through place names opens a shop at the place itself, which makes sense. The irony is that Phan Xi Păng, the drink named after that very mountain, was among the four sent on “summer break” in July 2025.

The word “Coffee” in the new name deserves more scrutiny. Vietnamese elders say “Một nghề cho chín, còn hơn chín nghề,” roughly “better to master one trade than dabble in nine.” Phê La is right that coffee has been on the menu since the early years, but a passer-by reads only the sign. In our view, the new name risks blurring the Dalat oolong promise.

The bigger risk is operations. An origin promise is strong because customers can check it with their own tongue. Keeping a bold flavor across 15 stores is easier than across 75. At a chain that sells by drink, a weak cup is a brewing mistake. At a chain that sells origin, a weak cup makes customers doubt the story of the tea region itself. A promise tied to one region also ties the supply to that region, so every new store stretches the whole supply chain a little further.

There is one more point founders tend to forget: a promise tied to a place name is hard to keep as your own. We discussed place-based names in our post on how to name a brand without clashing with others. Competitors can copy a “specialty tea” model without much trouble. What is hard to copy is that customers already think of Phê La whenever they think of oolong, and that habit lasts only while each cup still tastes right.

What can Vietnamese founders learn from Phê La?

Place Phê La next to Hồng Trà Ngô Gia and you see two very different paths. According to the chain's own figures reported by CafeF, Hồng Trà Ngô Gia went from more than 60 stores in 2021 to more than 500 in 2026. One chose reach, the other chose depth. The dangerous place is the middle. We read Phê La's move into coffee, its automated counters and its 100-store target as a sign that the chain is gradually stepping toward reach. For another drink chain to put on the comparison table, see our piece on Katinat's marketing strategy.

If you are building a beverage or food brand, here are four takeaways from Phê La:

• Make the promise a specific ingredient or origin that customers can check. A hot drink can be copied by competitors within one season.
• Name your products so that every order repeats the origin.
• Open stores only as fast as your brewing can hold the flavor. A good location always shows up faster than that.
• When you change the menu, keep the core ingredient, warn customers in advance and have a replacement ready.

Our view in one sentence: origin is a lasting positioning for Vietnamese brands, as long as you are willing to open stores more slowly than your rivals. Try asking yourself: if you pulled your best seller off the menu tomorrow, what reason would customers still have to come back?