Tea and Coffee: Jan. 5th & 8th

Our days in Chiang Mai were drawing down and we had no set plans for where to go next.  In a café, we tasted some really good coffee.  It was a great antidote to the freeze-dried crystals we had been getting used to.  We then heard about a brand of northern Thai coffee, Doi Chaang, which consistently produces coffee rated one of the best in the world. 

Small Akha village, Doi Chang, surrounded by fair-trade coffee plantations

When we also learned from  another traveller at our guesthouse about a 'heavenly' mountainous village, also in the north, famous for its Oolong tea and for the history behind how it became a tea growing region (more on that from Maya), we decided to make a trip of it.  So we headed north - first to Mae Salong, nestled in the heart of the high elevation tea growing region, to taste the teas and tour around some of the plantations.    Then it would be onto Chiang Rai, with a day trip to Doi Chang, to see first hand how coffee is produced and to taste the famous coffee at ground zero! 

Although the town and surrounding area's name has officially changed  from Mae Salong, which was so strongly associated with the opium trade, to Santikhiri (Meaning “hill of peace”), 'Mae Salong' is still what most people and signs still refer to it by.  The trip to Mae Salong was a 3-hour journey by Songthaew, a common form of public transport better suited for longer distances than the tuk tuks, and relied on heavily in rural areas. They are small pickup trucks with the beds converted to carry passengers on benches.  Although they're enclosed in a canopy, the beds are usually left open at the back for easy access.  They also have a  platform instead of bumper used as a step for getting in and out of the bed.  It was an exciting revelation for Lucas and Maya to learn that passengers can use the platform as an 'overflow standing' area when the benches fill up (or just when they feel like it), and to find out they were allowed to use it while the songthaew was moving as long as mom or dad are at their side.  Although they won't admit it, they might have had as much fun riding on the platform for the first time as they did on the zipline a few days earlier.

View of the countryside on the way to

Mae Salong from the back of a songthaew

Happy! Happy! Happy!

We arrived in Mae Salong to the feeling of being in a foreign land.  The central street-market, and in fact, the whole village, had a unique feel to it, owed in most part, to the rich Chinese history here.  Maya has done a good job summarizing that history but anyone who wants to learn more can find it here. 

Chinese lanterns strewn across the street in central Mae Salong

We  stayed in Mae Salong for an eventful 24 hours (see Maya's post above)) and while there, we had the unique and memorable experience of a street market tea-tasting. After tasting about 10 varieties of tea, some of them delicious, some of them not so much, came the high pressure sales pitch to buy something.  Had we been closer to the end of our trip we certainly would have bought some tea.  Unfortunately, English is not spoken very much in Thailand, especially in rural areas, so we're often left wondering what vendors must be thinking after we walk away empty handed, not able to convey our reasoning.  In the same market we came across an Akha hill tribe woman wearing her ceremonial dress, which they tend to also wear regularly in heavily touristed areas to leverage selling their wares.  Fine details in the headdresses vary with geography, and change with a person's age & social and marital status. I was lucky to get a picture of one Akha woman when she approached me to sell her wares as I was taking a picture of a typical market stall in Mae Salong.  The Akha, along with a number of the other northen Thai hill tribes originated in Tibet or southern China.

Akha hill tribe woman dressed in traditional/ceremonial dress

The next day we headed for Chiang Rai, where, among other activities, we planned a day trip to Doi Chang. 

Chiang Rai night market at sunset

We happened upon a 'Lady Boy' parade on our way to the night market.

Enjoying a hot pot meal at the night market

Waiting at our friendly hostel for the taxi to arrive

Doi Chang is a small village nestled high in the hills, where the conditions are ideal for growing coffee.  The trip up was spectacular, eventually reaching an elevation of about 1,700m.  High quality coffee is best grown at higher elevations.  As we drove along the valley floor with the throngs of other vehicles and then the less travelled road winding its way up into the mountains, we saw a variety of crops including: bananas, pineapples, garlic, coconuts, lychees, rice, papayas, and, of course, coffee. We quickly climbed above the low-lying clouds and mist, where the clear skies revealed views of the various types of hillside plantations growing where the native rain forest/jungle had been been stripped away.

Pineapple plantation in the foreground

We were pretty excited as this was the first time in 3 days that we were seeing the sun - it was a great day!  As we neared the top of the mountain, most of the  other crops gave way to coffee.  The Doi Chaang Coffee Co. sign at the entrance to the estate told us we'd arrived.

There were very few tourists around.  Our taxi driver said we could wander freely, to take in everything the estate had to offer.  First we had to taste the coffee.  We did this in the large, outdoor café with a covered rooftop dining area.  Kim and I had amazing, smooth cups of coffee - one americano and one cappuccino.  The kids had an Italian Soda.   After tasting the coffee straight up, we added our usual milk and sugar.  Even the course, raw palm sugar was amazing.  We then went downstairs into the coffee shop and hummed and hawed over the decision of whether to buy some coffee.  Although it was reasonably priced, we figured it wouldn't last through the trip to get it back home to share with friends and family so we opted out.  It gave us some comfort to know that the Doi Chaang Coffee company, which imports coffee for distribution across Canada, is based in Vancouver so we are reasonably sure that we'll be able to get it when we get back home.  We were actually more tempted to buy the 'civet-processed' coffee.  Civets are nocturnal mammals that eat the coffee 'cherries for their outer fleshy pulp. 

Their digestion  breaks down and ferments the bean, apparently infusing it with it's special, unique flavour before they are picked up by the pickers for further processing.    The movie, The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, featured another producer's civet coffee from Indonesia.  It is extremely expensive and neither Kim nor I were sure of how we felt about drinking something that's come out the south end of another living organism, so we opted out.

Our coffee tasting was followed by a self-guided trip through the grounds (no pun intended) of the cooperative and into the plantation.  Although it wasn't picking season, we saw first hand the practice of fair trade coffee production.  Villagers from two local hill tribes, the Akha and Lesu, were hard at work in their regular jobs of - washing the beans picked at the end of the last growing season (Nov./Dec.), spreading the beans to dry in the sun, sorting the dried beans, and packing them up into burlap sacks to be ready for export.  12,000 village families benefit from the coffee grown here.  In the last 13 years Doi Chaang has expanded from growing coffee on 80 hectares to 2,400 hectares and producing 3,000 tonnes. 

Coffee cherries ripening

Kim, Lucas and Maya in front of the

Doi Chang coffee washing plant

Coffee beans being spread to dry

Hand selecting beans (quality control)

Although Thailand is one of the biggest coffee producing countries in the world most of its production is of the Robusta variety used to make lower quality coffee, including instant coffee. The coffee grown in Doi Chang is of the higher quality Arabica variety.

The next day we left Chiang Rai for Bangkok.  First we took the bus back to Chiang Mai and then the overnight sleeper train to Bangkok before hopping on a plane to southern Thailand for some R&R beach-style.   It was the first time being on an overnight train for all four of us.  We were all excited.

 

Our overnight train to Bangkok

Kim, Lucas and Maya tucking in for the night aboard the sleeper train