Laos Coffee Brand Recommendations: Which Laos DAO Coffee is Best to Drink? Is Laos DAO Coffee Expensive?

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Coffee Experience in Laos

The author has drunk coffee in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane—with Vientiane's being the best: very strong. But the coffee in all three places lacked coffee aroma, leading the author to muse that perhaps Laotian coffee simply doesn't have any.

If you want to buy Dao coffee, it's much cheaper at Vientiane airport: a box of 10 three-in-one packets costs US$1, 30 packets US$2.5, and 50 packets US$4. Coffee beans and ground coffee are also on sale. You can check the company's introduction at http://www.daoheuangcoffee.com/.

Laos has two notable coffee brands: Pakxong and Dao—both quite good in the author's tasting.

If you want to buy Dao three-in-one coffee (or A-brand cigarettes), head to Pha Mahapatsama Road and Wisunarat Road (the road where Jaliya G.H. is located). Several wholesale stores there sell a 60-pack of Dao three-in-one for only 26,000–27,000 Kip, versus 35,000 Kip for a packet at grocery stores on Sisavangvong. A carton of A-brand cigarettes runs 30,000 Kip wholesale versus 40,000 Kip at those grocery stores.

Laos DAO coffee tastes quite good—fragrant and strong—and many Chinese visitors enjoy drinking it. Sold locally in Laos, it costs about 25 RMB per packet (600g).

About Dao Coffee

Dao coffee comes from the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos. The plateau's unique volcanic geology and climate create exceptionally flavorful coffee, and Dao coffee is processed by the Dao-Heuang Group Coffee Factory using modern, international-standard technology.

With coffee sales in China growing rapidly, the company decided to seize the opportunity proactively by introducing Laos Dao coffee products to regions across China.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the Bolaven Plateau story sparks your coffee wanderlust, there's a whole world of beginner-friendly specialty beans worth exploring—beans that taste great without costing a fortune. In Ethiopia, Africa's largest producer and the world-recognized birthplace of coffee, start with the Yirgacheffe and Sidamo regions: the washed Guodingding Cooperative lot shows jasmine florals, lemon acidity, and berry tones, while the naturally processed Cherie (Huakui) delivers berries, florals, jackfruit, melon, and honey.

Brazil, the world's No.1 producer, offers soft bean texture, gentle acidity, and excellent sweetness thanks to its sun-exposed plantations: FrontStreet's Cerrado Red Bourbon house bean is famously "tasty and cheap," with typical cream, peanut, and cocoa notes, while the higher-grown Fazenda Rainha—rare Yellow Bourbon—adds sugarcane sweetness atop Brazil's signature compound nut aromas (butter, melon seeds, macadamia, almond), thick and silky straight or with milk. Indonesia's answer is Mandheling: the wet-hulled FrontStreet Lintong Mandheling is richer and smoother than Blue Mountain, with herbal and spice notes and no sourness—ideal if you dislike acidic coffee—and the PWN Golden Mandheling, with three rounds of hand sorting plus one machine sort, tastes even cleaner and smoother, its woody and caramel notes more clearly defined.

Colombia's Huila lots (and the Pink Bourbon and Navel varieties), Costa Rica's honey-processed Mozart and Blackberry with their raisin, blueberry, osmanthus, and rose sweetness, China Yunnan's Arabica from Baoshan (nuts, chocolate, red sugar, black tea), and Panama's entry-level washed Boquete Geisha—with its unmistakable orange-blossom honeyed-tea character at a fraction of Esmeralda's price—round out an accessible tour of world coffee. Any of these makes a fine companion to a bag of Dao as a cross-cultural tasting exercise.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com