The best coffee in the world is grown in Thailand. If you dispute that then you’ll have to come here and see and taste for yourself. I was fortunate enough to take a trip into the mountains of northern Thailand to see a coffee farm. Lee, the owner of the Akha Ama Coffee shop in Chiang Mai, arranged for about 20 of us to journey to his village to see how coffee is produced, from germination of coffee plants to getting them ready for roasting. It was a learning experience to say the least, in more ways than one. We came away with a new appreciation of the effort goes into making it possible to have a great cup of coffee, as well as a view of hill tribe village life. I think I will always drink coffee a bit slower now in appreciation of how much work it took to get it into my cup. And I will never complain about the price of coffee again.
Like all journeys, you have to take it as it comes. Allow me to explain by borrowing art from Bill Hampton…
Part of the fun of being here is that you never know for sure what you have paid for and what you will get. Like everything you try to do in Thailand, it will be affected by your ability, or inability to communicate. You may think you have been given a good answer, when all you have received is just an answer. Accuracy does not always apply. We had our lunch at a Thai restaurant. I thought I had ordered pork soup, but this is what I got. It’s called pork and a bomb. Guess which part is the bomb.
Below is a picture of a hoong naam, or water room. It’s is where you do your business as well as bathe, and if you make a mess of yourself doing one then everything you need to clean up is handy. By my calculations the trip lasted about 55 hours. So, sooner or later you are going to have to do it. There is a bit of skill involved, and you have to learn on your own. To paraphrase Buddha; “This can not be taught.” Or to put it another way – good luck finding someone to teach you. Hint: always, always carry a bar of soap with you.
Part of the fun is getting there. Here's a two lane road into the mountains, hill tribe style.
Panorama shot of the mountains. Thanks to someone's Smart phone with GPS we determined that the village and farm are about 4600 to 5000 elevation. You can look up the location on Google earth with these coordinates. 19°30'14.20"N 99°18'36.57"E.
I took only a few photos of the villagers because I don’t like to be intrusive. But a few of the residents were quite willing to have their picture taken.
It’s a myth that the rooster crows at the break of dawn. The rooster crows whenever he wants to; noon, sundown, midnight, two in the morning, three in the morning, three fifteen in the morning… It’s not hard to imagine how someone could come up with the brilliant idea of eating them.
We entered the Akha Ama village in mid-afternoon (picture taken later that evening). We were greeted by Lee’s mother and served hot tea and fruit. I think the young one in the center wants to play "Where's Waldo?"
Later in the day Lee gave us a short tour of the village. It’s no wonder why theses tribes are known as “hill tribes.” The people live on steep slopes and flat ground is hard to find.
We were hosted in the homes of the village people. Sleeping accommodations were provided on a wood platform about six inches above a dirt floor. I and three others shared a platform. Men and women guests sleep separately, even if they are married.
We ate three meals a day. The emphasis was on rice, vegetables, and pork, and it was delicious and plentiful. Yeah - when the sun went down it got cold.
Food prep for the evening meal.
If you wanted spicy peanut sauce then you had to pitch in with the shelling.
Early the next morning we arose and had our coffee (of course) and breakfast.
After breakfast we set off to hike about an hour or so to the coffee farm.
How about this road for your morning commute?
At the farm we were shown how coffee plants are germinated and kept in the nursery until they’re about 3 years old. Once planted it takes an additional two years for them to produce coffee beans.
Part of the fun was learning to pick the beans, or cherries. Only the dark red cherries are ripe, and they are the easiest to pluck from the plant.
One kilo (2.2 pounds) of coffee cherries will fetch about 25 baht, or slightly less than one US Dollar. It’s a lot of work, but we were told that an experienced picker can pick about 25 to 50 kilos a day.
Back at the village we were shown how the coffee is processed by removing the husk, soaking the beans in clean water for 48 hours to remove the sugary coating, and then finally dried in the sun. A kilo of dried beans (but not yet roasted) will fetch about 170 baht.
That’s my story of the Coffee Journey. I would like to leave you to contemplate the following words from my friend Vic: “The average Thai owns a small TV, water buffalo, and has a bag of rice in the kitchen, and he goes to sleep thinking he has the world by the balls. The average American has a car, or two, a mortgage, refrigerator, clothes washer, dryer, maybe a Quisinart or Espresso machine, HD Tv, iPhone, and at least one computer, and he goes to sleep thinking the world has him by the balls. Why is that?” A few days in a hill tribe village may provide you with the answer.
I’m not so good with the pictures, and even worse with words, but I hope this simple story has given you a deeper appreciation of your morning brew.
