A visit to the five Central Highlands provinces—Đắk Nông, Đắk Lắk, Lâm Đồng, Gia Lai and Kon Tum—at this time of year is to be enchanted by the pure, dazzling white of coffee flowers. Under golden sunlight and the clear blue skies that follow the Lunar New Year, the hillsides of the Highlands are blanketed in coffee’s snowy blooms.
Because the climate differs from province to province, the timing of the coffee trees’ flowering also varies. Depending on local weather, farmers irrigate their trees to trigger flowering, but typically coffee blossoms twice each year, from February through late April. This gives visitors plenty of chances to experience the fragrant spectacle across the region.
About a week after the first watering, the buds burst open. First come pale green tips and tightly closed buds; then suddenly the hills turn a brilliant white when all the flowers bloom at once. For more than ten days the blossoms brighten the landscape before fading.
Coffee flowers are not only strikingly white but also release a heady, sweet perfume. Their gentle scent draws clouds of bees to gather pollen and nectar, creating the finest honey. Swarms of brightly colored butterflies follow the fragrance too, flitting and dancing across the Central Highlands sky.
Beneath the flowering branches, children laugh and play while the free-ranging native pigs root happily for food—touches of life and color that give the Central Highlands its unique spirit during coffee blossom season.