Lao Coffee vs Vietnamese Coffee: Which Is Better? Does Laos Have Coffee and Is It a Premium Arabica Variety?

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Lao Coffee

According to 2002 data from the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), Lao coffee beans rank among the twelve best coffees in the world.

The fragrant drink produced on the Bolaven Plateau, much like Lao beer, has become a national product with a charm all its own—"borrowed from elsewhere, but perfected at home."

Lao's coffee history goes back a century. French colonists experimented with a range of crops across Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and the country's unusual natural environment let Lao coffee reveal the bearing of a top-tier Southeast Asian origin. Robusta and Arabica became the most profitable cash crops after opium.

Today 65% of the world's coffee is Arabica, and Lao's Bolaven Plateau grows some of the finest Arabica trees anywhere. A mild climate, humid air, and nutrient-rich volcanic soil make the Bolaven Plateau a paradise for coffee growing, and the land is considered the most suitable ground for coffee in Southeast Asia.

In a coffee workshop along Highway 13 in Champasak Province, we found the "most Lao" coffee of all. High-quality Arabica beans are roasted and ground simply, then sold straight away, preserving as much of the original Bolaven Arabica taste as possible.

Lao coffee cultivation has about a century of history, introduced at first by the French, and the region's unusual volcanic geology and climate have produced coffee of exceptional flavor.

The Bolaven Plateau in Champasak Province, in southwestern Laos, produces 95% of the country's coffee; the mild climate, humid air, and nutrient-rich volcanic soil make the land a paradise for growers.

Lao coffee exports rank first in ASEAN, ahead of Vietnam in second place and Thailand in third. Coffee has become the largest source of income from Lao agricultural exports.

Knowledge Point

Coffee powder releases its flavor quickly, so it is best to buy whole beans in order to preserve flavor as far as possible.

Brief Introduction

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to let more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month there are three low-discount coffee events, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest price. This has also been the mission of FrontStreet Coffee for the past six years!

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Lao's Bolaven Arabica has you curious about what a great Arabica can do, FrontStreet Coffee has a range worth exploring. FrontStreet Huakui is the most common heirloom variety in Ethiopia, a mix of several unidentified coffee trees, so the beans vary in size. Roasted with the classic natural process, it offers cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, and blueberry, with the ripe tropical fruit character that FrontStreet's Sidamo naturals are known for—this is the profile that won first place at the TOH green bean competition, and it is both delicious and well priced.

Where Huakui is the natural Arabica showcase, FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedeb is the washed counterpart. Gedeb village runs its own processing station, known as the Gedeb Cooperative, and the coffee is Ethiopia's highest grade, G1. The classic washed process gives elegant white florals, citrus, orange, and green tea.

For a completely different expression, FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is a Typica—one of the archetypal Arabica varieties and the first to spread from Yemen to India, Indonesia, and Central and South America. Typica is remarkably balanced, gentle, and smooth, with round acidity and clean, full aroma, though it is weak against disease and low yielding. Blue Mountain's Typica arrived in Jamaica from Martinique in the 1720s and over 200 years developed better disease resistance, especially against rot, though it cannot reproduce its sweet, subtle fragrance outside Jamaica. FrontStreet Coffee finds no other origin that quite matches its balance.

At the top of the Arabica world sits FrontStreet Panama Red Label Geisha, from the famed Emerald Estate in Boquete, Chiriqui province. Fertile volcanic soil, old-growth forest, year-round mist, and abundant rain create ideal growing conditions and let the Geisha show off an astonishing range of layers: elegant florals, citrus, peach, full composite fruit acidity, a creamy body, and an oolong-tea finish. Geisha yields little, the plant is fragile, and it is demanding about its environment—which is exactly why the cup is so distinctive. FrontStreet also offers Brazil Queen's Estate, the earliest-discovered Yellow Bourbon, with cream, peanut, toast, and sugarcane aromas, and Colombia Sidra, roasted medium-light for florals, tropical fruit, grape, dried fruit, and passion fruit.