Description
Thai Coffee?!?!? A rare origin in the U.S. for stand up beans, turns out they grow a lot of coffee in Thailand. The specialty market has been up and coming and the beans getting better and better. Similar to origins like India but with more hybrid processing methods. These beans have a unique story and taste.
We have been looking for tasty Thai coffee for quite some time, had some friends on the ground over there for a bit but every time we got samples, tasted more like robusta with some overly earthy tones, reminded me of more European style espresso beans. We hooked up with Lanna coffee recently (awesome folks) to source some higher end and in our opinion tastier Arabica lots. Doesn’t hurt that it is also a very feel good project run by awesome folks as well.
This is a Honey Processed lot. That means it was dried in the flesh of the coffee fruit, but with the fruit skin removed. Generally this gives the cup a thicker body, and more sweet citric tastes. If dried quickly, they tend to be more along the line of a washed processed, if dried slowly, more like a Natural. These beans are a little closer to the washed processed but does have just a pinch of a fruit note at the lighter roast points.
Tasting Notes: A good cup from light to dark, in the medium roast range was our favorite. Light roasts are clean and bright, medium to full bodied, it will have a pretty strong citric tone upfront that balances nicely a little hint of fruit and spice, on the nuttier side with a little herbal note in the aftertaste. Medium roasts similar to most of the Thailand coffees brings out a nice and more potent chocolate note, reducing the citric and accentuating the classic Asian spice. Still noticeable acidity at the medium roasts but its more buzzy than citric, not an overly sour cup but will leave your tongue a bit dry: provides some great depth of flavor. Not a fruity cup, but one might see some hints as the cup cools. Darker roasts get real hefty with a lower perceived acidity, herbal, chocolate, smoky and roasty. Good body and mouthfeel.
Roasting Notes: Tastes a little more like the washed processed, but will roast like a natural. Higher chaff levels and slightly uneven. We still consider it an easy to roast coffee due to it being tasty from light to dark roasts. Would recommend starting at your preferred roast level. To accentuate sweetness and the brighter characteristics, take it lighter, to get bold, chocolate and spice tones, darker is better.
Lanna Coffee:
“Coffee from Thailand?” you might be wondering. After all, Thailand is far from a traditional growing region for coffee. Most of us are used to seeing coffees from places like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Colombia. But Thailand isn’t exactly where people think of when they think of where their coffee came from. So, what is it about Thai coffee that makes it special? Why is it a mainstay of the Lanna Coffee lineup?
For over a century, refugees fleeing political and social upheaval in China and Southeast Asia have migrated to Northern Thailand. Stateless, these refugees live in poverty without many chances for a better life. It isn’t in any one person’s power to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the world, but, when we work together, we can do great things.
When Lanna was founded, we had one thing in mind: service. How could we serve our coffee farmers as well as our customers? We wanted to roast premium coffee from a nontraditional region, but we also wanted to ensure that our business could improve lives in the communities we sourced from. To achieve this, we partnered with an NGO with a similar goal: the Integrated Tribal Development Foundation.
The ITDF is an organization committed to improving the lives of poor hill tribe communities “in many aspects of life, including clean water, sanitation, agriculture, education, health, and cash crops.” For the past thirty years, the ITDF has been partnering with these communities to equip them with the training and equipment to produce stellar coffee. Today, over 40 villages are a part of Thailand’s first certified fair trade coffee co-op, immeasurably improving the lives of the people living there.
We are proud to say that Lanna Coffee is the largest buyer of Thai coffee in the U.S. Thanks to your support, we’ve been able to demonstrate our commitment to Thai coffee and encourage other farmers to convert their crops to one that provides a more stable revenue source for themselves and their communities. Every time you purchase from Lanna, you directly contribute to this goodwill that has allowed coffee production in Northern Thailand to flourish.
Today, over 400 coffee farms in Northern Thailand are 100% farmer owned. We purchase single-source, pesticide-free coffee beans directly from these farmers and are constantly grateful for the literal fruits of their labor. Whether this is your first or your hundredth bag of Lanna, know that it’s thanks to your purchase that we are able to continue serving the hill tribes of Northern Thailand. You can make a difference, even if it’s through something as simple as a cup of coffee.
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