Green coffee sourcing desk — Jakarta, Indonesia
Coffee Origins · Thailand
Specialty Thailand coffee is mostly Arabica grown in the northern highlands around Chiang Rai, in hill communities such as Doi Chang and Doi Tung, with Robusta grown further south. Northern lots grow at roughly 1,500–2,100 metres and taste clean and approachable: chocolate, mild fruit, medium body.
Most people who search for Thai coffee mean the drink. This page is about the other meaning: the coffee grown in Thailand.
So what is in Thai coffee? In the drink, strong coffee, sweetener and milk, and sometimes roasted grains. The coffee itself may or may not come from Thailand. The rest of this guide is about the beans that do.
Thailand grows both species of coffee, in two quite separate parts of the country. Robusta grows in the hot, humid southern provinces near the peninsula, and makes up most of the country's volume. Arabica grows in the cool northern highlands, close to the borders with Myanmar and Laos, and that is where almost all specialty Thai coffee comes from.
The two make very different cups. Southern Robusta is heavy, bitter and high in caffeine, and much of it goes into instant coffee and the iced drink. Northern Arabica is cleaner and sweeter. More on how Arabica and Robusta differ in the cup.
Arabica is a recent crop in Thailand's north, planted on a large scale only from the 1970s and 1980s onward. The specialty side is younger still: in the last fifteen years or so, growers, processors and local roasters have pushed quality up quickly, and a strong domestic café culture now drinks much of the best coffee before it can be exported.
Many Thai coffee brands take their names from the hills the coffee grows on, Doi Chang and Doi Tung among them. On a bag, the place name is usually the most useful clue to what is inside.
The coffee we sell grew out of a decision to stop growing opium.
For much of the twentieth century, the hills of northern Thailand were part of the Golden Triangle, where opium poppy was one of the few cash crops that paid in remote highland villages. From 1969, the Royal Project, started by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, worked with hill communities to replace poppy with other crops, among them coffee, fruit and vegetables.
Doi Tung is closely tied to one of those efforts. The Doi Tung Development Project, begun in 1988 under the Princess Mother, replanted deforested slopes and built coffee into the local economy, with processing and roasting kept close to the growers. Doi Chang is a highland village community in Chiang Rai, home to Akha, Lisu and other hill peoples, which turned to coffee in the same period and is now one of the best-known coffee names in the country.
These are the two places our Thai lot comes from. Their coffee is the result of decades of work by the communities who live there, not a story laid over a commodity.
Thailand's Arabica comes from a band of northern provinces; its Robusta from the south.
Thailand's most important Arabica province, on the borders with Myanmar and Laos. Doi Chang and Doi Tung are its two best-known coffee hills: steep, forested slopes where coffee often grows under shade, picked and processed by local communities. Chiang Rai lots are the reference point for Thai specialty coffee, clean and sweet, with chocolate and mild fruit. Our Thai lot comes from both hills.
High hills north of the city. A growing number of small producers and processing experiments.
Remote eastern hills on the Laos border. Small volumes, often sweet and clean.
Mountainous and isolated, on the Myanmar border. Smallholder Arabica in scattered villages.
Chumphon, Surat Thani and Ranong. Lowland Robusta, most of the country's volume.
| Region | Species | Typical character |
|---|---|---|
| Chiang Rai | Arabica | Clean, sweet, chocolate and mild fruit |
| Chiang Mai | Arabica | Varied, often brighter in experimental lots |
| Nan | Arabica | Sweet, clean |
| Mae Hong Son | Arabica | Soft, balanced |
| The South | Robusta | Heavy, bitter, high caffeine |
Most northern Thai Arabica is Catimor or a related rust-resistant variety, planted because it copes with the region's disease pressure and yields well on small farms. Some growers also keep older varieties such as Typica and Caturra, and a few plant others for micro-lots. More on coffee varieties.
Thai specialty coffee is washed by default. Cherry is pulped, fermented, washed and dried in parchment on patios or raised beds, which keeps the cup clean; see how washed processing compares with natural. Processors in the north have also taken quickly to honey process and natural lots, which bring more fruit and body, and these are now a growing part of the harvest.
Northern Thai Arabica is clean and approachable: chocolate up front, mild fruit, a medium body and gentle acidity. It is rarely sharp or wild, which makes it an easy coffee to drink every day. Honey and natural lots push further toward fruit and sweetness.
A medium roast suits most Thai Arabica and keeps the chocolate and fruit in balance. It works well as filter, and its body and sweetness carry well into espresso and milk drinks. Our Doi Chang and Doi Tung lot scores 85 on the SCA scale.
The question usually means the iced drinks, but the beans differ too.
As drinks, both are strong, sweet and milky, and the differences are in brewing and serving. As beans, they are further apart: Vietnam is a very large, mostly Robusta producer, while the Thai coffee sold as specialty is Arabica from the northern hills, smaller in volume and milder in the cup.
Black Ivory is a brand of elephant-processed coffee made by its producer, the Black Ivory Coffee Company, in northern Thailand. According to the company, elephants eat coffee cherries and the beans are collected after passing through them, a process it says changes the flavor. It is sold in very small quantities at a very high price, which the producer attributes to the low yield of the method.
SpecialtyCoffee.shop does not sell Black Ivory coffee and is not connected with its producer. For a related discussion of animal-processed coffee, see our section on kopi luwak, Indonesia's civet coffee.
We are a green coffee sourcing desk. Every lot we list is cupped before and after shipment and ships with its documentation. If it is not traceable, we do not list it.
Chocolate and mild fruit, 1,500–2,100 masl, SCA 85. Sold by the bag, with the lot's origin and documentation on the product page.
View Thai coffee beans →For roasters and importers. Send wholesale and sample requests, and ask for documents before you commit.
Request samples →As a drink, Thai iced coffee is strong, dark-roasted coffee with sweetener and milk, often condensed milk, and in the traditional oliang style sometimes roasted grains. As an origin, Thai coffee is the Arabica and Robusta grown in Thailand.
Both. Robusta grows in the south and makes up most of the country's volume. Arabica grows in the northern highlands, and almost all specialty Thai coffee is northern Arabica.
The iced drink is, because it is usually made with dark-roasted coffee, often Robusta. Northern Thai Arabica is not: it is mild, clean and medium-bodied.
Northern Thai Arabica can be very good. Our Doi Chang and Doi Tung lot scores 85 on the SCA scale, with a clean cup of chocolate and mild fruit.
For specialty Arabica, Chiang Rai, and in particular the hills of Doi Chang and Doi Tung. Chiang Mai, Nan and Mae Hong Son also produce good Arabica in smaller volumes.
