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About Coffee Culture Thailand, Susan's Thai Coffee Journey
Our Visit To Smallhold Coffee Farmers In Thepsadet, Chiang Mai
May
Founder’s Diary — 2026 Visit To Our Small Hold Family Farmers
The Misty Mountains Of Thepsadet, Chiang Rai
By Susan, Founder of Coffee Culture Thailand — May 2026
There are trips you plan, and then there are trips that plan you. What we mean is, some trips surprise you and take on a life of their own, rather than going exactly as expected. It’s that kind of trip that shapes the experience rather than you controlling it. Our visit to the Thepsadet Arabica coffee farms in northern Thailand was exactly that. A landscape that stopped us at every turn, unexpected moments around every bend, and a coffee origin story that we didn’t fully understand until we were standing in the middle of it.
Thepsadet, Chiang Rai – Where The Forest Smells Of Cinnamon
An hour’s drive east of Chiang Mai brings you to Doi Saket. A district known for its hot springs, waterfalls, and the kind of quiet mountain life that reminds you the world is still mostly made of forests and slow roads. We knew we were heading into the mountains, and after the narrow roads up to Khun Chang Khian, we thought we had a reasonable idea of what to expect. We didn’t. The roads got narrower. Then narrower again. At points there was no bridge. Just the road dipping down and crossing straight through a stream, then climbing back up the other side. You hold your breath a little and keep going. The day was overcast with a light drizzle on and off, which gave the whole landscape a soft, cinematic quality. The kind of morning light that photographers pray for and coffee farmers know well.
The villages don’t hide in the forest here. They sit right on the road, appearing suddenly as you come around a bend and disappearing just as quickly in the rear mirror. A cluster of houses, a small shop, a few motorbikes outside and then just mountain road again. We passed one village that stopped us mid-sentence. It’s that kind of village you wouldn’t be expecting. A cosy little village, with cosy little coffee shops, accommodation right by the streams. No luxury, no tourist polish. Just mountains, local life, and the kind of quiet that reminds you the world doesn’t always have to move fast. Charming in its own way. The kind of place you would go to disconnect from everything and reconnect with the environment, the earth. Doi Saket has that quality. It asks you to slow down.
Khun Pond and the Road Into the Forest
We met Khun Pond at the Doi Saket hot springs. A 24 years old, warm, quietly confident, and carrying the knowledge of three generations in how he talks about coffee. He drove us up into the mountains to visit three of the village farms, each one a little further into the hills than the last.
I’ll be honest, the road was long and winding, and by the time we arrived, we had earned the view. And what a view it was…
The farms here don’t look like farms in the conventional sense. The coffee trees grow within the forest, tucked among towering trees with canopies that filter the light down in golden layers. Every now and then, you’d spot a fruit tree. A mango, a longan. Growing right alongside the coffee plants, as if the whole mountain had decided to be productive all at once.
Thepsadet Arabica coffee Thailand grows between 1,000 and 1,300 metres above sea level. The air at that altitude is cool, clean, and this is the part that surprised all of us. It smells faintly of cinnamon. We caught the scent on the drive up and looked at each other like “Do you smell that?!” Being the cinnamon lovers we are; cinnamon rolls, coffee with cinnamon, apple crumble with cinnamon, you name it. We were stunned to catch a whiff of fresh cinnamon drifting through the open windows as we climbed higher into the mountains. Something unique to this particular pocket of forest. We didn’t expect it. We couldn’t stop talking about it.
Visiting the Thepsadet Chiang Mai Coffee Farm at the Most Critical Time of Year
Like our visit to Khun Chang Khian, we arrived during the vegetative stage. The flowering had just finished, with the petals recently dropped, and the young coffee cherries were beginning to form as tiny pin-head fruit sets. This is one of the most delicate and important periods in the coffee growing cycle. The plant has put everything into the bloom, and now it begins to build the fruit. The tiny red cherry that will eventually be picked, processed and roasted into the coffee in your cup.
Walking through the forest rows, it felt almost intrusive to be there. Like visiting a nursery during feeding time.
1,000 Families, One Community
As we moved between the farms, Khun Pond filled us in on something that stayed with me long after the day ended.
For years, most of them didn’t know where to sell their harvest. They relied on government purchasing programmes and large commercial buyers who would come in on annual contracts, take what they needed, and leave the rest. Which meant that in many seasons, farmers ended up sitting on bags of perfectly good green beans with no one to sell to. All that work. All that care. No buyer, no income. Sadly, this remains the reality for many smallhold farming communities in Thailand today.
Khun Pond saw this and did something about it. He works with the community as a collective. Gathering the beans centrally, grading them by quality, and then teaching families how to move beyond the basic washed process into honey and natural (dry) processing. Each family that learns a new process unlocks a new tier of value. A washed coffee is good. A well-executed natural process can be extraordinary. And Khun Pond is teaching his neighbours how to get there. The only thing missing was a buyer.
What we didn’t expect was what he said about us. Khun Pond told us that Coffee Culture Thailand was the first company to reach out, buy directly from him and help open a market for his community. To hear that, sitting in the mountains, surrounded by the farms we’d just walked through, was indescribable.
His mission, in his own words: to uplift this community through coffee. Not just to sell beans, but to give these families the tools and knowledge to eventually build a real livelihood from what they grow.
Three Generations Deep
The story of Thepsadet Arabica coffee starts with Khun Pond’s grandfather, who first established the family’s connection to these highland farms. His father carried it forward. Attending government programmes, royal family agricultural education projects, and private workshops to learn everything from cultivation and plant care to processing and roasting. He brought every lesson home. And at one point, on a late evening with a friend, winery owner from Chiang Mai. The two of them had one of those conversations that only happen when the hour gets late and curiosity gets going. One idea led to another. They tested a wine barrel aged process on a batch of Thepsadet beans.
The result was extraordinary.
That experimental spirit has become part of the Thepsadet story. They now produce wine barrel aged coffee and strawberry aged coffee alongside their traditional lines. Innovative, complex, layered cups that reward slow attention and curious palates.
Now 24 years old, Khun Pond has taken all of this and built it into an educational programme for the wider village community. His grandfather’s craft, his father’s curiosity, and his own generation’s drive. All channelled into coffee.
The Yellow Flowers, the Bees and the Taste of Thepsadet Chiang Mai Coffee
One of the things that makes Thepsadet Arabica coffee genuinely unique as an origin is what grows alongside the coffee in this forest. A particular yellow-flowering tree, the Fagaceae, blooms throughout the canopy, and the bees that pollinate the coffee carry pollen from these flowers as they work. Over time, this cross-pollination has shaped the flavour profile of Thepsadet coffee in a way that you simply can’t replicate anywhere else. It’s the terroir, in the most literal, beautiful sense of the word.
The result in the cup: very low acidity, smooth body, and a distinctly nutty, gentle character. It’s the kind of coffee that makes people close their eyes for a second after the first sip.
The Ride Down the Mountain
I should tell you about the ride back.
Damien and I begged to ride in the back of the truck on the way down. We wanted the cool mountain breeze, the open air, the full experience. What we got was cold wind coming off the mountains, ears going numb, that particular chill that you only get at altitude when the sun has dropped behind the ridge. The temperature was probably only 20 degrees or so. It felt like ten. And somewhere along the way back, the cinnamon smell drifted through again. And for a moment everything felt perfect. That was when my son looked down, noticed my ankle, and kindly pointed out. Several times! That flip flops to a mountain farm visit had perhaps not been my best decision. Hahaha.
Something had bitten me during the farm walk. It is now the 1st of June and the bite marks are still there, still itchy, and very much a reminder. Word of advice: leave the flip flops at home. Highland forests have opinions about footwear.
But it was all part of the day. Part of the whole, imperfect, real experience of following coffee back to where it comes from.
500kg of Green Beans and a Man Who Needed Help
On the way back from the farms to the processing facility, we stopped at one of the village homes. An elderly man had a collection ready, around 500kg of green beans, packed into sacks of roughly 24kg each. Khun Pond was going to load them alone. The man was elderly and couldn’t do much heavy lifting. So we helped. Passing sacks, stacking them in the truck. It was not glamorous work. It was exactly the kind of moment you don’t plan for and don’t forget.
Then it was another thirty-minute drive down to the processing area and roasting facility.
Thepsadet Coffee, Chiang Mai – Where Every Batch Tells A Story
We arrived to find the electricity had gone out mid-roast. A batch was stuck in the drum. Not something that can be paused or saved once interrupted. That batch had to be discarded entirely. Khun Pond mentioned it happens once in a blue moon. The kind of loss that stings but doesn’t surprise someone who’s been doing this long enough to know that nature and equipment have their own schedules.
Eventually the power came back, and we sat with Khun Pond’s family. His uncle, his mother, the quiet heartbeat of a family business. And tasted the wine barrel aged and strawberry aged coffees. They were phenomenal. Complex and unusual in the best way. Not an everyday coffee. This is a specialty cup that asks you to slow down, savour every sip and pay attention to what’s in the glass.
Two Delicious Single Origin Arabica Coffees From This Place
Everything we experienced that day. The cinnamon forest, the 1,000 families, three generations of knowledge, the wine barrel experiments, the cold ride down the mountain. It all ends up in the cup. Two of our delicious single origin Arabica coffees carry this origin. And now that you know where they come from, we think you’ll taste them differently.
Thepsadet is the coffee that high-end breakfast tables reach for. Rosewood Phuket serves it. TikTok’s head offices brew it. It’s a coffee that performs. Balanced, refined, a reliable excellence that earns its place in professional spaces without ever feeling corporate. Medium-dark roasted, smooth, dependable in the best sense.
Nutty Lover is a café favourite. The coffee that regulars ask for by name and baristas love to work with. That signature low-acidity, smooth, nutty character that comes from the yellow flowering forest and the bees that move through it. The coffee that makes a café feel distinct. The one that makes people pause, mid-sip, and ask what they’re drinking.
Before We Left, We Had To Visit The Hot Springs
We also stopped at the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs. One of the local recommendations we were glad we took. A 106-degree geyser shoots from the earth with a force that genuinely startles you. We boiled eggs in the spring pools the way locals have for years. Soaked in the mineral baths. The area sits on geothermal land, and we like to think that all those volcanic minerals bubbling up through the soil over thousands of years have had something to do with the character of what grows here. It would make a lot of sense if they did.
Susan ☕ Founder, Coffee Culture Thailand May 2026