C0FFEE MAESALONG

By Seamus Hsieh ─2018 Summer

INSTRUCTION

Coffee is an important economic crop in Mae Salong, where the main variety of coffee is the Arabica coffee; the variety was introduced by the Royal Thai Government about 20 years ago. Credit to the support of the Royal Government, the market of the coffee beans in Thailand often remains stable. Thai’s coffee also has a popular name in the world. In Thai, the most popular brand is the Xiangshan coffee. Recently, the Akha Amo coffee also has an uprising demand in Europe and the United States. Because the Arabica coffee beans will gain a richer flavor at high altitudes and the coffee plantation in Mae Salong is located at an altitude of 800m-1200m, which is a very suitable environment for Arabica coffee, many residents of Mae Salong gradually starts to produce coffee for their living, however, there are only a handful of coffee shops in the local area. Even so, each coffee shop has its own special history and characteristics.

Doi maesalong coffee

Doi Mae Salong coffee is a very new coffee shop with an exquisite decoration designed by the shopkeeper himself. The shopkeeper’s name is Xie Zi fu, his ancestors came to Mae Salong with the 93rd Division of the Chinese National Army. Now he is the third generation of his family. Zi fu believes that the political disturbances in the past about Mae Salong are not worthed to be brought up again by the people. Nowadays in Mae Salong beside Chinese, there are seven more ethnic minority groups and three distinct religions. These people all live and prosper together. This, said Zi fu, is the most valuable asset of Mae Salong and should be witnessed by the world.

Zi fu is very familiar to the history of Mae Salong’s coffee and tea. He said that originally Mae Salong used to resell opium from Myanmar to the Golden Triangle. After the Thai government announced that opium was Illegal, Mae Salong began to produce all kinds of fruits. But because these fruits could only be harvested once a year and if there was some kind of natural disaster such as hail, the quantity of the product would decrease steeply, which made the people very difficult to earn money. After which, Mae Salong started to grow Assum and green tea, but the value and demand for the product are still not high enough. It was not until Taiwan developed the Jinxuan Oolong and the Royal Thai Government assisted the introduction of Arabica coffee beans did the agricultural system and economy of Mae Salong become sound and robust.

Because Zi fu’s family produces tea for a living, we can see all kinds of tea products in his shop, including Cassia Oolong, Dongding Oolong, Four Season Oolong, Jinxuan Oolong, Oriental Beauty Tea, Glutinous rice tea, Green tea, white tea and Aged Pu 'er Tea. Zi fu also said that the coffee beans in his store have a sour flavor.

Mae Salong Golden House Coffee

The owner of Mae Salong Golden House Coffee is a young couple from Taiwan. The shopkeeper is called Xiaoshi. He is only 28 years old, so he might be the youngest coffee shop keeper in Mae Solong. Xiaoshi’s ancestor was in the air force of the Chinese National Army. On the other hand, his wife who is 6 years younger than him is half Mae Salong and also has an excellent command of both Chinese and English. Xiaoshi said that he used to work in the electronics industry, but after he met and married his wife in Taiwan, he decided to come to Mae Salong. Three years ago, he noticed that the coffee shop market in Mae Salong has a lot of opportunities for development, therefore he started his coffee shop business.

Xiaoshi’s said that Thai people have a unique habit of drinking coffee, especially ice coffee, which is nothing similar to Taiwan’s. Unlike Taiwan’s ice coffee products, which is free for consumers to adjust the proportion of sugar and ice, in Thailand shops usually provide sugary coffee with a full cup of ice as it demonstrates the generosity of the shopkeeper. In addition, most of the coffee is favored by condensed milk instead of fructose. Therefore, if customers request the store to cut down the proportion of ice they might be considered strange. Given these special seasonings, Thai people also have a special set of standards for judging the quality of the coffee. That is when you are about to finish your coffee with a lot of ice remaining in your glass, if your coffee won’t lose its favor due to the melting ice, then you are drinking good coffee. On the contrary, if your coffee is already tasteless, it isn’t good coffee. Therefore, when Xiaoshi’s started his business in Mae Salong his coffee didn’t meet the local’s taste. No sooner did he launched several times of adjusting than things started to get better.

What’s more, Xiaoshi’s mentioned that in Mae Salong most of the tourists are from Thailand. In order to enhance the diversity of his coffee product, Xiaoshi’s shop provides both medium and dark coffee and multiple choices of flavor. Xiaoshi has his own coffee garden and roaster. The store has three types of coffee beans, which are the red bourbon coffee beans, mainly used for ice coffee, yellow bourbon coffee beans, mainly used to brew hot coffee, and Typica coffee beans, mainly used for pour over coffee.

The local coffee & tea

The owner of The local coffee & tea is Haiyan. Her ancestors came to Mae Salong with the 93rd Division of the Chinese National Army many decades ago. What should be highlighted is that due to Haiyan has been to Australia a year for work exchange before, she has a very sound mindset about environmental issues. She told us that the living stander in Mae Salong has dropped severely. For example, the diurnal and annual range of temperature has increased and Myanmar’s smog Infringement and local’s deforestation for more farmland also devastates the environment significantly. Due to these factors, she has a fervent to take environmental-preserving actions. Therefore, when our team members took out the environmentally-friendly tableware and straws, she seemed to be very interested in them and she even planned to introduce these environmentally friendly products into her store, which might someday become a very attractive feature of The local coffee & tea.

Among all the characteristics in The local coffee & tea, the most noteworthy one is Haiyan's homemade coffee product Coffeeiloveu. Haiyan said that she uses the coffee beans that won the ARABICA COFFEE AWARD and an exclusive roaster for Coffeeiloveu in order to ensure the quality of the beans. She believes the consumers’ health and the stability of her coffee’s flavor are the most important things for her to concern. During the last two years as she ran her business, Haiyan had continuously refined her own coffee brewing proficiency. She had also introduced some related products such as coffee bags and Ice Drip coffee. In addition, Haiyan said that a certain part of her store’s revenue will be donated to the orphanage every year, hoping to help more children achieve resources to pursue their dreams. Coffeeiloveu, therefore, becomes a product with a sense of kindness.

Apart from her coffee shop, Haiyan is now working on combining her family’s Ganoderma business with coffee to develop an agricultural recreation Farmcafe, so that customers can observe and participate in the manufacturing operation of the food that they consume. Haiyan said that in Farmcafe parallel with coffee she will grow Ganoderma, vegetables, mushrooms, etc. On the other hand, she will build a homestay so that tourists can experience living on organic farms. In Mae Salong where the travel and tourism industry is the main business that runs the local’s economy, it’s industry will become richer and more diversified due to Haiyan’s effort.