Ve De Di

Based in Hanoi, Vietnam, Về Để Đi [vea•dae•dee] crafts daring spirits and liqueurs using locally sourced ingredients to provide a Vietnamese framing of traditionally Western distillates. Established in 2020 as Vietnam’s first dedicated commercial whiskey distiller, Về Để Đi now produces a full range of definitive Vietnamese liqueurs that showcase the vibrancy of the country’s cultural identity and celebrate its diverse agricultural products.

Roughly translated as “to return in order to go,” Về Để Đi refers to the pursuit of one’s dreams and the realization of how to live authentically by redefining oneself. Rather than lean into a dated or mythologized history, Về Để Đi fully embraces the indomitable spirit of contemporary Vietnam and its rich culture of food and drink. Principally founded by poet and hospitality veteran Quan Hung Nguyen and Michael Rosen, one of the founders of Vietnam’s acclaimed Sông Cái Distillery, Về Để Đi is a brand at the forefront of the country’s craft spirits movement, informed by a bustling, cosmopolitan Vietnam and its burgeoning culinary and cocktail scene.

Về Để Đi’s Lệ Chi Distillery was originally established in 1997 as the Sơn Tinh Distillery, technically making it the oldest independent commercial liquor distillery in Vietnam. Using copper pot stills, a four-plate Holstein copper column still, and a new eight-plate DYE copper column still, Về Để Đi crafts a complete line of spirits and liqueurs. The liqueurs produced by Về Để Đi stand on their own, with each featuring singular, locally grown Vietnamese botanicals, resulting in unique but familiar expressions of classic fruit liqueurs that simultaneously defy and exceed the expectations of their categorical counterparts. 

All primary botanicals and grains used throughout the Về Để Đi range are locally sourced. The base spirit of Về Để Đi’s liqueurs is distilled from Vietnamese Red River rice grown just 100 kilometers from Hanoi in the provincial city of Thai Binh, and the sugar used for sweetening comes from Nghe Anh in North-Central Vietnam, where the distillery also sources molasses and cane syrup. Their Crème de Cacao is made using cacao sourced from six regions throughout the country, their Triple Sec with green-skinned cam sanh oranges from the northern province of Ha Giang, and their Crème de Coconut from coconuts grown in Ben Tre in the south of the country. Về Để Đi also works closely with a Hmong village (an indigenous group in East and Southeast Asia with a large population settled in the mountainous northern region of Vietnam), sourcing indigenous corn and other botanicals from eleven farming families.