Fresh 2024 Harvest from Mae Kha Jan in Thailand
Over the last several years, we’ve featured a variety of washed coffees from Beanspire in Thailand. This year, we’re excited to bring back a washed coffee from the Mae Kha Jan mill–the first Thai coffee we ever featured!
from left to right: Jane Kittiratanapaiboon and Fuadi Pitsuwan, the founders of Beanspire Coffee at the mae kha jan mill
Coffee was first introduced to Thailand in the 1970s by the former King of Thailand to eradicate opium production. Coffee has since taken off in Thailand, where there is a thriving local specialty coffee culture that pays farmers fairly and allows them to lead successful coffee businesses. This has made working in coffee appealing to younger people in the country, where the average coffee farmer is in their late 20s or early 30s. Fuadi Pitsuwan and Jane Kittiratanapaiboon, the founders of Beanspire Coffee, are a part of this younger generation that is moving the Thai coffee industry forward. While Fuadi helps produce coffee with farmers during the harvest season and markets the coffee to roasters in Thailand and abroad, Jane spends most of her time at their three wet mills, where she helps with collecting cherries, processing, milling, sorting the beans, and preparing them for delivery and export.
Jane, center, sorting green coffee with employees at the mae kha jan mill
Mae Kha Jan is one of Beanspire’s first mills, located in the Chiang Rai province in Northern Thailand. It’s located in the lowland buti is surrounded by many high mountains where coffee is grown. At this mill, Jane and Beanspire’s partner farmers have implemented a washing process inspired by a double fermentation process popular in Kenya. Coffees at Mae Kha Jan are pulped and dry fermented for 24 hours. Afterwards, the coffee is washed and fermented again, only this time in clean water for 12 hours. In the final step, the coffees are placed on raised beds and left to dry for 15-20 days. The coffees are rotated regularly to ensure even drying. Once dry, the coffees are kept in their parchment to rest before milling. The Mae Kha Jan mill consists of a huller, de-stoner, size grader, and gravity bed, making it one of Thailand's most advanced dry mills.
the mae kha jan dry mill
Although this process is a little more labor intensive than the standard washed process, the additional steps have produced coffee with a sweet and clean profile. Its fruit notes are delicate, similar to Asian pears, but what truly makes it shine is the sweetness and body found in this coffee. It has a refreshing, slightly syrupy mouthfeel similar to coconut water and a lightly sweet, lingering finish reminiscent of palm sugar. This coffee is hard to put down; it’s easy to have one sip after another–even more so when it’s iced! We suggest preparing this coffee using a coarser grind, and letting the coffee age several days after roast date to get the sweetest flavors!
