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 Washed Processed lot. That means shortly after picking, all the fruit was removed before drying. This is the traditional premium processing method, generally not fruity and will provide more “classic” coffee tastes than Honey or Natural processing.
Testing Notes: Best at a medium to dark roast: bigger bodied and darker toned. Clean and delicate cup with subtle floral tones on a cocoa/chocolate base. Gentle sweetness and medium citric acidity reminiscent of mandarin; very balanced profile. In lighter roasts, citrus-floral nuances with a slight herbal/vegetal undertone may emerge. With medium roasts, it becomes rounder with spiced chocolate; in dark roasts, “baker’s chocolate” cocoa predominates, with a heavier body and very low acidity. Medium roasts are where we thought it shined, just a small hint of citric sweetness upfront with a good balance of spicy chocolate notes, unique spice, more like the Indian coffees. Darker roasts get more like the Dominican with strong bakers chocolate and smoky tones, a hefty cup with very low acidity.
Roasting Notes: Easy to roast; slightly more chaffy than usual. It performs best in medium to dark roasts: in light roasts, the lemon/floral character is prominent, but may be accompanied by herbal notes and the chocolate character is not fully developed; in medium roasts, it shows its best balance with a touch of citrus sweetness and spiced chocolate; in dark roasts, it gains body, intense cocoa, and smoky notes, with very low acidity. If you’re looking for the peanut butter/caramel hints you mentioned, work on the light-medium side, but the “chocolate factor” is enhanced by moving to medium/dark. Avoid going into the second crack to maintain cleanliness.
Huay Mak:
The Huay Mak village has a remarkable history of coffee cultivation that spans more than three decades. It all began when the first coffee trees were planted, marking the village’s foray into this world of flavors. Today, Huay Mak is home to 25 houses, with 17 of them being active members of the coffee cooperative. The entire community is united under the banner of the Akha tribal group, a community that cherishes and honors its ancestral traditions.
What sets the coffee from Huay Mak apart is its unique environment. Situated in the heart of Thailand’s primary coffee growing region, the natural forest canopy provides the ideal shade for coffee plants, eliminating the need for irrigation. The soil itself is a treasure, rich in organic matter thanks to the continuous fall of leaves from the forest canopy. This rich soil, combined with a natural mulch of decomposing leaves, suppresses weed growth without the use of herbicides or chemicals.
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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