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Chiang Mai's Coffee Cultural Renaissance

Chiang Mai, with its numerous historic temples, has long been regarded as Thailand's cultural capital, exuding a leisurely pace of life and traditional atmosphere everywhere. However, over the past decade, this ancient city has gradually revealed its metropolitan edge. Highways and modern buildings have emerged, attracting many creative industries and young entrepreneurs. Now, besides being filled with stylish galleries and restaurants, coffee culture has become particularly popular in Chiang Mai; northern Thailand has finally stepped onto the path of trendiness.

The Vision of a Coffee Master

Several years ago, a young barista and world-class latte art master noticed Chiang Mai's development potential and seized this rare opportunity. Arnon Thitiprasert, also known as "Tong," sipped an Ethiopian espresso while recalling why he resolutely decided to leave the specialty coffee shop he had personally founded in Sydney to bring coffee culture back to his hometown of Chiang Mai: "I have a deep passion for coffee. Back then, I could have chosen to stay in Sydney for a few more years to earn more money, but I wanted to take a chance while I was still young. If coffee culture and business didn't work out in Chiang Mai, I would still have time to start over."

Building the Coffee Community

He opened Ristr8to Coffee on Nimmanhemin Road in 2011. At that time, specialty coffee had just been introduced to Chiang Mai, with the main customers being local expatriates and tourists. However, Thai people gradually discovered this new way of enjoying breakfast beverages. Tong said: "Thai people have a deep interest in Westerners and foreign cultures, and they were curious about our coffee, so they wanted to taste and further understand coffee."

After considerable effort, he was rewarded. Nimmanhemin Road, located several streets west of the old city, has now become Chiang Mai's coffee center and is said to be the place with the highest concentration of coffee shops in all of Thailand. This stylish community is somewhat off the main tourist route but attracts local students, expatriates, and passing coffee enthusiasts, many of whom make special trips to Ristr8to to taste the delicious coffee from this famous establishment.

Traditional vs. Modern Coffee Culture

Locally, it's common practice to mix condensed milk and large amounts of sugar with instant coffee brewed in cold water. Although this type of coffee remains mainstream in restaurants throughout the area, you can now always find one or two professional coffee shops between general restaurants in the alleyways.

International coffee chains entered the local area early on but never gained much traction. Local artisan coffee shops only began appearing six or seven years ago but quickly took root. This phenomenon is largely thanks to several local artisan baristas, Tong being one of them. Most of them studied in international coffee capitals and then brought their skills back home to serve delicious coffee to their compatriots. Tong said: "I traveled the world to study coffee, but in the end, I just wanted to bring these skills back to my hometown and create a coffee culture here."

Local vs. Imported Coffee Beans

Ristr8to's coffee beans come from various famous coffee-growing regions around the world, but they also use Thai coffee beans. Tong said that foreigners usually don't mind trying locally produced coffee beans, but locals underestimate their domestic production. Due to the 97% import tariff on coffee beans, plus other costs, imported coffee is priced much higher than local coffee. Under the influence of the concept that "cheap goods are not good, and good goods are not cheap," locals naturally favor foreign coffee beans. However, Tong's coffee roastery, Ristr8to Lab, is just around the corner from the coffee shop on another street, where coffee courses are regularly held to teach customers to appreciate coffee beans from different origins.

He said: "Now everyone understands that as long as it's brewed properly, Thai local coffee beans can also produce rich and delicious coffee. A quality coffee depends not only on cultivation methods and roasting processes but also on excellent baristas—every aspect is equally important and indispensable."

Ethical Coffee Sourcing

A few minutes' walk north from the coffee alley on Nimmanhemin Road, you'll find a small coffee shop called Akha Ama Cafe. Its storefront design is unassuming, providing an interesting contrast to Ristr8to's stylish atmosphere. The shop's owner, Ayu Cheupa (everyone calls him "Lee"), works with coffee farmers from his hometown Akha village to provide ethically sourced and sustainably grown coffee beans, successfully securing an important position in Chiang Mai's coffee landscape. The company's business model ensures that all villagers benefit from it.

Lee said: "I saw that many indigenous villages were very poor, and our village was no exception, so I made up my mind to use my experience to help villagers improve their lives. Coffee is the world's second-largest traded commodity (the first is crude oil), and our village has always grown coffee beans, so developing a coffee business was a natural choice."

Thailand's Coffee Heritage

The mountainous areas of northern Chiang Mai began growing coffee beans decades ago, mainly managed by indigenous farmers in the mountain regions. In 1983, the Thai royal family strongly encouraged northern Thai villages to abandon opium cultivation and switch to growing coffee to escape poverty. The government not only provided Arabica coffee seedlings to villagers but also taught them how to cultivate them. Akha village was the first town to see coffee development as a new source of income and has now become a leader in Thailand's local coffee bean production industry.

Although Lee was the first university graduate in this remote village, he originally knew nothing about coffee, let alone developing it into a business. He said: "I visited a local coffee shop to drink coffee just to see what this thing was all about. The menu on display was dazzling, and I finally randomly ordered the first item on the menu: espresso."

Espresso has a strong, intense flavor—small in portion but bitter in taste, which could easily intimidate first-time coffee drinkers. However, after tasting this coffee, Lee continued to taste other varieties in the shop and eventually began studying coffee brewing methods from around the world, including in the United States and London.

Fair Trade Principles

To achieve "fair trade" principles, Akha Ama Coffee Shop does not purchase coffee beans through coffee merchants. Lee said: "We buy coffee beans directly from coffee farmers, and we personally manage the roasting and sales process, so they get higher profits compared to farms that sign contracts with roasting companies. We insist that coffee farmers must use environmentally ethical methods to grow coffee beans and practice regular fallow rotation to avoid damaging the land, and unlike many coffee farmers outside, they can maintain their traditional farming and lifestyle. This business approach sometimes encounters difficulties—last year's frost wiped out 40% of our harvest—but in the long run, this approach is still the best overall."

Eight years since the company's establishment, the quality of life for villagers has generally been ideal, and the village's tap water and electricity supply are more stable than before. Meanwhile, more and more young villagers can receive higher education. Lee added: "Our company has also changed the public's inherent ideas and prejudices about mountain indigenous peoples!"

The Quality of Thai Coffee

So how does Thai coffee taste? Akha Ama's coffee is by no means disappointing, and its coffee beans have twice reached the finals of the World Cup Tasters Championship, thus rising to the rank of world-class coffee.

Whatever your coffee preference, you can find incredibly rich choices in the side streets and narrow alleys of Chiang Mai. With talented coffee enthusiasts like Lee and Tong, Thailand creating one of the world's richest and most diverse coffee cultures seems just around the corner.

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, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

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