cent years, Thai coffee has been rising in popularity, and for good reason. The country produces some of the world's most complex-tasting coffee varieties and has steadily been increasing production with increasing demand.
Nacha coffee, a grower based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, produces a strain of Arabica Typica that will win over anyone skeptical of the taste quality of South East Asian coffees. We were lucky enough to not only discover the coffee but to meet the founder of the company, who retired from public life in Thailand to pursue his dream of producing the world's best Arabica coffee from his homeland.
Grown at 4000-5000ft above sea level, Nacha coffee reflects the land's complex environmental conditions in its taste. For one, the farmers use a multiple picking process to ensure that the coffee beans are always ripe. Rather than stripping the trees all at the same time and later discarding undesirable beans, Nacha's arabica is handpicked before it is processed. Coffee pickers will do sweeps of the trees picking only the beans that have fully ripened. In addition, the grower sun-dries their coffee, rather than putting their delicate beans through several water processes.
The province of Chiang Mai due to several environmental factors, has produced soil particularly good for growing coffee. Though situated in a tropical region, Chiang Mai enjoys a more mild climate compared to the rest of the country. The area has lower humidity, a shorter monsoon season, and a lower annual temperature, creating a micro-climate among the Chiang Mai mountains. Rain water from the mountains seeps into the soil, making it particularly rich in mineral content.
The anatomy of a coffee bean consists of several layers which insulate the bean and can affect the taste of the coffee. Rather than being power washed and stripped of these insulating layers, the beans are soaked to soften the pulp, which is removed, and then the beans are left to sun-ripen, thereby naturally separating the layers. The pulp of the cherry and the parchment surrounding the coffee bean itself (a paper-like layer similar to the shelling of a peanut) contains taste elements which give a more complex and layered flavor to the coffee. Nacha is careful to preserve bits of parchment in order to better conserve the bean's full bodied flavor. Nacha growers use minimal processing and manage to clean the beans in the most natural way possible, without depriving the coffee of its natural taste. In order to ensure the quality of the final product, Nacha's beans are hand graded, and then roasted in small batches. By doing so, the grower is able to more closely monitor the entire process and guarantee the best tasting final coffee.