Doi Pangkhon Washed comes to us from coffee producers in the Doi Pangkhon community in the Chiang Rai province of Thailand. The community includes around 300 households, each typically producing 1–2 tons of parchment coffee each year. Producers here grow Catuai and Typica varieties alongside the local Chiang Mai variety and SJ133 variety coffees that are common across the country’s coffee growing regions.
This coffee underwent a “Kenya-style” Washed process at the wet mill in Doi Pangkhon, building on the double fermentation Washed process common throughout Kenya. Cherries were first pulped before being fermented with no water. The pulped coffee was then wet fermented, before being briefly soaked and fully washed to remove any remaining mucilage. The Washed parchment coffee was then dried on raised bamboo beds for at least 14 days before being moved to a lowland area to finish being dried to the optimal humidity.
This coffee was sourced from our partners in Thailand, Beanspire Coffee. Beanspire began working with coffee producers in Doi Pangkhon in 2015, initially guiding each producer’s wet processing individually and purchasing their parchment coffee ahead of milling and grading at Beanspire’s dry mill. During the 2017/18 coffee year, Beanspire invested in a wet mill in Doi Pangkhon operated by the Merlaeku brothers—Apae, Asor, Nat, Amae, and Bas, members of the Akha ethnic group—and have continued investing in and improving the mill each season since. These improvements have included updating the mill’s pulping machines, adding a roof and concrete floor, building an onsite cupping lab for producers, and improving workflows and processes.
Beanspire’s co-founders, Fuadi Pitsuwan and Jane Kittiratanapaiboon, are part of the young generation moving the Thai coffee industry forward. Thailand is unique as a coffee producing country; the country’s specialty cafe and roaster scene is thriving, and domestic consumption demands regularly outpace the country’s production volume. Only around 5% of Thailand’s specialty coffee is exported each year, while the rest is enjoyed by Thai coffee drinkers. This means that the coffees selected for export by the team at Beanspire are each chosen to share the work of Thai coffee producers with a global audience, providing a glimpse into the growing specialty coffee revolution happening in the country.
