Fuadi Pitsuan would get his fill of caffeine at specialty coffee shops as a student in the US. As a frequent visitor, he noticed that shelves were usually filled with coffees from Africa and Central/South America. Rarely did he see any coffees from Asia, let alone coffees from his home country of Thailand. Why was that? During his studies, he met Jane Kittarattanapaiboon, who was also studying in the US. Jane was born and raised in Chiang Rai, Thailand’s northernmost region and where arabica coffee is grown. With their shared curiosity for coffee and their desire to share high quality Thai coffee with the rest of the world, they established Beanspire Coffee in 2014.
Jane Kittarattanapaiboon and Fuadi Pitsuan, Founders of Beanspire Coffee. Beanspire is both a miller and exporter and works directly with farmers.
Coffee was first introduced to Thailand in the 1970s by the former King of Thailand as a means to eradicate opium production. In what was known as the Royal Project, the northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai were reforested, and farmers were given training, tools, and technical assistance for growing coffee. Bordering the countries Myanmar and Laos, this mountainous region known as the Golden Triangle has a terrain and climate that is prime for growing arabica coffee. Although Thailand is a relative newcomer to the industry, it has gained recognition as a country that produces high quality beans in a short period of time.
Thailand is in a unique position for a number of reasons. Unlike most producing countries that face the challenge of an aging farmer population, most coffee farmers in Thailand are between the ages of 25-35 years old. Coffee farming is attractive to young entrepreneurs, because up north, it’s less than an hour’s drive away from the cities and coffee farming is also profitable. When Beanspire first began exporting coffee, they thought they would be able to offer farmers higher prices, but they actually found that Thai farmers were already receiving high prices. Because Thailand is an upper middle income country, locals can more easily afford higher priced coffees, making way for a coffee culture that thrives on homegrown specialty beans.
Ripe cherries harvested!
Higher prices for farmers is merely one benefit of having a strong, local specialty coffee culture; another is having local roasters and baristas be more open to processing experiments. Fuadi explained that at first, Beanspire was more conservative and stuck to more common methods of processing—such as washed—because it was sure to sell. Both the local and global market is now encouraging Beanspire to become more experimental again, but there is always a risk to experimentation. It can be costly, and it doesn’t always guarantee better quality or unique flavors. While many coffee buyers in a consumer’s market will be less inclined to purchase an average tasting experimental coffee, local coffee buyers are more willing to take on a variety of experiments. Perhaps it is because roasters and baristas alike are able to visit farms and process coffees themselves, and understand the intensive labor required to follow through with experimentation.
Jane Kittirattanapaiboon and crew sorting green coffee. Jane spends most of her time around Beanspire’s three wet mills, collecting parchment, milling the coffee, sorting the beans, and preparing them for delivery and export.
Beanspire’s exports have been growing at a steady pace, but the spread of COVID-19 has caused major hiccups. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the Thai government prioritized the health and safety of its citizens over the economic well-being of the country, and enforced a strict lockdown to control the spread of the virus. While Thailand was one of the most successful countries in controlling the spread of the virus at the time, the economy suffered. Thailand is now in its second wave of COVID, and the government is trying a different approach of a partial lockdown. People are able to continue their livelihood, but with more safety measures. It’s difficult to say how this will all play out, but we can say that there are definitely some challenges up ahead. While Fuadi and Jane predict that production and exports should be around the same, quality control is a grander task. Fuadi normally helps produce coffee with farmers during the harvest season and also helps farmers with making decisions on processing, but with the partial lockdown, Fuadi has been unable to visit farms and has had to rely on phone and video calls to keep in touch with producers and help keep up morale. Jane spends most of her time at Beanspire’s three wet mills, collecting parchment, milling the coffee, sorting the beans, and preparing them for delivery and export.
Beanspire’s dry mill consists of a huller, destoner, a size grader, and a gravity table, making it one of the most advanced mills in Thailand.
How Thailand and its coffee industry will fare this year is still uncertain, but we only hope that things will look up. As we wait and see what will happen next, we are excited to embark on this new partnership with Beanspire coffee and represent Thailand on our menu for the first time! Although Beanspire has a lot of delicious experiments up its sleeve, we wanted to introduce you to Thai coffee by first sharing this solid washed coffee. The Thailand Mae Kha Jan Beanspire is exceptionally clean and approachable, with the delicate sweetness of an asian pear, a light juicy body that reminds us of young coconut, and an acidity similar to pomelo!
