Doi Chaang Coffee

Coffee growing in Doi Chaang village, in the hills of Chiang Rai province, dates to 1969, when hill-tribe farmers there were encouraged to plant Arabica as an alternative to opium poppy -- a program that carried the backing of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama 9. What began as a crop-substitution effort has become a full estate operation run largely by the Akha and Lisu families who farm the slopes, handling the crop from cherry to cup rather than selling raw beans out to a separate processor. Cherries are hand-picked selectively and wet-fermented on site, a slower and more labor-intensive process than mechanical stripping, and the beans are grown at around 1,200 meters, an altitude that slows ripening and concentrates flavor. The estate sells both washed and honey-processed lots from the same single origin, and various certifications back up its specialty-grade claims. More than fifty years on from a program meant to replace an illegal crop, the village's coffee is now marketed on the coffee's own merits -- balanced acidity, low caffeine, distinct aroma -- rather than on the story of where it came from, even though that story remains unusually well documented for a single-village origin.