Sweet and Clean: Thailand Doi Saket Beanspire

Located in the Chiang Mai Province, Doi Saket is the oldest coffee growing area in Thailand. Arabica trees were planted there in the late 1970s as part of the opium replacement program by the Thai king. Over time, other coffee growing areas started to replace coffee trees with higher-yield and more rust resistant cultivars. Doi Saket kept their now rare typica trees, and although it is lower in yield, this heirloom cultivar continues to create a tasty cup.

Nui and Aoy with their daughter. The two are young coffee producers who left their white collar jobs to return to their family farms.

Nui Intakad, a former engineer, and Aoy Jaisooksern, an accountant by training, are a young couple who left their office jobs in the city and came back home to work on their parents’ coffee farm seven years ago. Both Nui and Aoy are in their mid 30s. Alongside our partners Fuadi Pitsuan and Jane Kittarattanapaiboon Beanspire Coffee, Nui and Aoy are part of the young generation of coffee professionals that are shaping the Thai coffee industry.

Fuadi explained to us that producers in Doi Saket are used to washing their coffees with just one day of fermentation (the traditional washing method). In an attempt to create a more complex and clean coffee, Beanspire worked with Nui and Aoy to apply a double-stage fermentation process. In the first stage, cherries were immediately processed upon arrival at the wet mill: they were pulped and left to dry ferment in a closed tank for 24 hours. In the second stage, water was added into the tank to wet ferment the coffee for an additional 24 hours. The coffees were then washed and placed on raised drying beds before being transferred to the dry mill for hulling, sorting, and preparing for export.

Stage 1: After pulping, the coffee is left to dry for 24 hours. You can see the sticky mucilage clump the coffees together.

Stage 2: Water is added to the tank and coffees ferment for 24 hours. Wet fermentation makes it easier to wash and remove the mucilage.

Stage 3: After wet fermentation, the green coffee is hand washed before being placed on raised drying beds

This is the third Thai coffee we’ve featured on our single origin rotation, and its sweet and clean profile delivers! It has a sweet acidity and flavor akin to pomelo, a body reminiscent of coconut water, and a smooth, round finish that reminds us of butterscotch. As both filter and iced coffee, its thirst quenching qualities makes it easy to take one big sip after another. As an espresso, it’s smooth with a rounded sweetness and acidity that lingers. We have only a small amount of this coffee—be sure to grab a bag while you can!

Stage 4: Coffee parchment is left in tact during the drying process, and is left until the coffee is ready for hulling, and sorting before export. Keeping the parchment layer protects the green coffee from losing moisture too quickly and helps maintain its quality.