“We want to elevate the small, local guys. It’s not the cheapest, easiest way to do it, but this is what we choose to do.”
Championing the traditions of one country’s coffee culture, as well as the farmers who cultivate the crop, is the focus of the newly launched Fat Miilk coffee company, co-founded by former St. Louisan Lan Ho.
“We’re emphasizing the cultural aspect, the storytelling, the local farmers of the coffee culture in Vietnam,” said Ho. “Yes, the coffee industry in America is a 100% saturated industry, but there are opportunities to stand out.”
Ho recalls the idea to become involved in the coffee business began years ago, when she, along with her sisters, envisioned building something together.
“I conceptualized doing something with coffee in my early 20s. I have two sisters and we were always talking about being in business together—that was about 10 years ago,” she said. “I’ve been in higher education for so long that coffee is a pick-me-up. But beyond that, if you ask any Vietnamese person, coffee is not anything novel, it’s embedded in our lifestyle. In every corner of Vietnam, there’s always someone drinking coffee.”
Ho, who grew up in St. Louis, is a board-certified pharmacist who had her eye on starting her own pharmacy. She is a graduate of Lindenwood University, and received a liberal arts master’s degree in finance from Harvard University and a doctorate in pharmacy at St. Louis College of Pharmacy. She moved to Chicago in August 2019 and continued to work as a pharmacist for Walgreen’s until the pandemic hit.
“I ended up getting furloughed as I marked my two years at Walgreen’s – it was a company-wide furlough due to COVID,” Ho said, adding that the disruption proved to be a way for her to move forward.
“When I was furloughed, I received severance, which set me up to transition,” she explained. “It gave me about two months to make strides. I actually enjoyed my time at Walgreen’s…and just a few weeks later, they asked me back and I declined.”
The “transition” Ho refers to is her new company, Fat Miilk. She and co-owner Tuan Huynh began their business partnership in Chicago and launched Fat Miilk in September. The ownership team also includes St. Louis restaurateur David Choi of Seoul Taco, who is Ho’s fiancé, and Corey Gilkey of Leaders 1354, a clothing company in Chicago.
The company’s first official offering, Màu Xanh Blue Roast, is made with 100% Vietnamese robusta beans.
“Vietnam is the No. 1 exporter and harvester of robusta beans – that’s what they drink and that’s what they use,” Ho explained. “Robusta is known for its higher caffeine content. It has a bolder, stronger profile, and that’s why you’ll see it made with condensed milk. But the great thing about Vietnamese coffee is, while the really bold, in-your-face coffee with condensed milk is such a perfect pairing, you can also drink it straight black.”
Fat Miilk prides itself in being a direct-trade coffee company, which means it does business directly with the farmers who grow the beans.
“My partner’s family owns a coffee farm in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, which is the ideal area to grow coffee, based on altitude and climate,” she said. “We source directly from his uncle, we speak Vietnamese with them…For us, it’s not just selling the coffee – our tag line is ‘Beyond the Drip’ – but we’re also promoting the culture and the agricultural practices that are done by hand, such as the use of the water buffalo (featured on our company’s logo), which is the Vietnamese farmer’s most prized possession.”
In St. Louis, the company has partnered with The Banh Mi Shop in the Delmar Loop, a Vietnamese sandwich eatery that now serves a selection of Fat Miilk drinks, as well as retail products like coffee beans and phins (slow-drip Vietnamese coffee filters).
“We launched a small wholesale partnership with Banh Mi Shop and owner Jimmy Trinh,” Ho said, explaining that her company felt a kinship with the new restaurant, which opened for business in late February, just as the pandemic was beginning to impact St. Louis. “I wanted them to be the first to be able to take advantage of the opportunity with this partnership. He launched during the pandemic, we launched during the pandemic… “
Ho is hinting that there are plans to broaden Fat Miilk’s footprint in St. Louis, but for now, she and her partner are focused on growing the brand, beginning with its signature Blue Roast, a medium-dark roast with notes of chocolate, molasses and toasted almonds. In the near future, Fat Miilk will officially introduce its Yellow Roast (medium-roast coffee) and a Red Roast (dark-roast coffee).
Ever the entrepreneur, Ho is already thinking beyond just the coffee and working toward the bigger picture.
“We’re about to open a brick-and-mortar location in (Chicago’s) West Loop, we hope by early spring. We also hope to produce our own condensed milk line,” she said, stressing how every action the company takes is intentional. “The end goal would be to be able to go to Vietnam and set up systems and infrastructures for those farmers. We want to give them the ability to have a livelihood off of just growing the coffee. We want to elevate the small, local guys. It’s not the cheapest, easiest way to do it, but this is what we choose to do.”
For more information about Fat Miilk and to order its products online, visit FatMiilk.com.
