Five years spent looking for my grandmother’s grass jelly

"It is never too late to begin again with something you truly believe in."

That is what Doan Minh Tai — an MSc, an actor, and the founder of La Sams — tends to say when asked why he built a business around such an everyday dish.

It began with a leaf

His first memory of the leaf is of his grandmother in the Mekong Delta: an aluminium basin, a handful of leaves, and hands working them until the liquid thickened. No written recipe, no measurements, only knowledge passed by mouth.

The trouble is that knowledge passed by mouth cannot open a chain. To make one cup taste the same across several stores, everything has to be reduced to numbers.

Five years, and a great many failed batches

It took five years from the idea to the first store. Most of that time went into answering very specific questions: how long is long enough to work the leaves, at what temperature the sap stops setting, what water ratio lets the jelly set on its own with nothing added.

There were stretches when more batches failed than worked. But adding jelly powder to guarantee a firm set — the common, far cheaper route — was not something he would do.

Not all heritage sits in a museum

The brand's position grew out of exactly that: "Not all heritage sits in a museum. Some of it lives in our memory."

Grass jelly is not a luxury dish. It belongs to grandmothers, to childhood, to hot afternoons. What La Sams does is keep that core intact and put it in a form people today will actually pick up: a good-looking cup, a balanced taste, something you can carry to work.

From Saigon to Little Saigon

By September 2026 La Sams has four stores in Ho Chi Minh City and one in Westminster, California — in the heart of Little Saigon, where the dish meets again the community that carried it abroad.

The brand has also worked with more than 200 partners, businesses and state organisations across events and collaborations.

What he is looking for

"La Sams is looking for partners who believe a childhood dish can become a Vietnamese brand that travels," he says.