Introduction to Thai Local Coffee Bean Varieties_Quality and Pricing of Thai Coffee Beans

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Introduction to Thai Coffee

To introduce this Thai coffee bean to domestic coffee enthusiasts, I hope the coffee industry can shift its focus to see that many emerging coffee producing regions in Asia are producing green beans with quite distinctive characteristics. Particularly the green beans from northern Thailand's mountainous regions and central Myanmar's coffee beans that I've personally encountered have shown remarkably high quality. This is why I predict that Asia is very likely to become a world center of coffee production.

Not only are more and more countries joining the production ranks, such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, East Timor, Cambodia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. We even want to join this coffee production team.

If you observe carefully, this region covers areas that could potentially produce extremely high-quality coffee. Only time will reveal how many top-tier coffees will emerge in the future.

Thailand's Coffee Regions

In fact, Thai coffee is divided into Robusta coffee grown in the south and Arabica coffee grown in the northern mountainous regions, specifically in the so-called northern Thai mountainous areas like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Northern Thai Arabica coffee is most famous for the Royal Doi Dung coffee. Their coffee factory is excellent, and they use Kona coffee grading standards for classification. Although I'm quite familiar with several of the Royal managers and often receive their beautiful free samples, I have never purchased this particular bean.

I always order beans from Mike, a Baptist, not out of Christian bias, but because of the quality differences demonstrated in the bean processing—this particular bean's quality is more charming and thoughtful than the Royal's.

Community Coffee Production

The Thai coffee I'm sharing today is produced in the Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai mountainous regions, coming from a coffee cooperative formed by the Thai Christian Baptist Church to help mountain villagers. In addition to assisting villages in setting up simple water facilities, they also help them manage agricultural production. Coffee is one of their important projects and has become their most successful product. Most of their production is exported.

The Royal's beans, due to their excellent polishing and grading equipment, have very consistent and bright appearances. This church bean has more silver skin on the outside, but its internal quality is very solid.

The Royal's hulling and polishing machine is the same brand I imported, capable of processing 2000 kilograms per hour; the Baptist cooperative's hulling machine is a Thai brand, simpler in design, making it more difficult to remove silver skin. For over 10 years, I've purchased 100-300 kilograms of green beans from them almost every year, always thinking of doing my small part to help them in some way.

Quality Assessment

Today I received 2 kilograms of green beans delivered by FedEx—a sample I requested from them a few days ago (so fast!). These are the freshest green beans from the 08/09 season, appearing almost simultaneously with Yunnan coffee. The aroma is very similar to regular coffee green beans, but even more intense and with lasting sweetness.

The general impression is that American beans have distinct aromas but slightly less concentration; Asian beans have rich, thick flavors but lack aroma. This northern Thai bean and Myanmar bean, however, combine the traditional flavor and aroma of both regions in a single bean. You could say there's no need to make Manhado blends or create Barima combinations anymore.

Note: Although Burmese beans are easily available on the market, their quality doesn't match the caliber I'm describing. Perhaps some people have tried northern Thai beans but don't guarantee they're as good as I say. This is precisely why we must strictly select coffee estates—the problem lies in post-processing attitudes.

Years ago, someone suggested importing this unprocessed green bean to sell as other coffee, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Last year, I imported 100 kilograms of Grade A beans, but their manager didn't pay attention to my warning, and that batch contained nearly 30% small beans. This time, I specifically emphasized wanting Grade A, #15 and above beans. The two kilograms of green beans I received are indeed much larger and more uniform.

Compared to other coffees, although this bean's green color has a blue tint, it leans toward green tones; this Thai green bean is clearly more blue-toned with lighter green undertones. Judging from the color tone's post-processing, this bean's processing skill is already very stable and profound.

About FrontStreet Coffee

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

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473