Royal Thai Coffee

Royal Thai Coffee is a single-origin bean variety, grown by separate farmers on their adjoining lands, handpicked and imported green. It is organic and naturally grown in the lush mountain valleys of northern Thailand. We have sourced and imported these beans directly. They are the best AA grade Arabica beans. They are roasted in Dunedin in micro-batches. When you order, you can be sure it is the freshest and finest product available.

Piemrak

This specialty coffee is 100% Thai grown on a single plantation on the side of Muang Parn. It is named for our foundation.

This is the full Thai experience and is great Coffee made of the highest quality beans and has excellent flavour.

Long black drinkers may find this one most appealing.

SUTHEP

This blend mixes 50% of our Thai specialty coffee with Arabica beans from Columbia, Kenya and Papua New Guinea. Suthep is named after a mountain more than 1600m high in Thailand.

Daily latte drinkers have told us they find this full bodied and a great coffee.

SAKET

This blend is Thai specialty coffee at 25%, mixed with Arabica beans from Columbian, Kenyan and Papua New Guinean. Saket is named after a mountain more than 1800m high in Thailand.

Coffee tasters who like variety have said to us they find this well rounded and a pleasure to come back to.

KIAMBU

Named for the famed mountain district in Kenya, these mountain-grown Arabica beans are a blend from Columbia, Kenya and Papua New Guinea.

Kiambu is part of our family of our well-rounded medium roast coffees and is delicious.

Meet our partner in Thailand

Teerapol our partner in Thailand inherited the "know how" from and worked alongside his father establishing 2 coffee plantations. His father was one of a group of Thai Agricultural Scientists shoulder tapped by the King more than 30 years ago to research and grow suitable strains of coffee plants. Coffee was an alternative to the scourge of the opium poppy which had been the cash crop of poor indigenous mountain farming families. Replacing opium with a sustainable legal cash crop was highly desirable and part of a long term sustainable plan.

Terrapol (pronounced Terrapon) was a reluctant farmer. Originally a city boy at heart he now looks forward everyday to follow in his father’s pioneering spirit to develop for hill tribe families sustainable agriculture. He brings his expertise and goodwill to his neighbours, providing the correct seedlings and helping them multi crop the same space, coffee being the primary crop, which diversifies their income streams.

The Thai Government assist this by restricting the amount of land a consortium or investment company can own. This encourages individuals to be personally involved bringing real value and economic activity to what were some of the poorest and remotely inaccessible regions of Thailand. Royal Thai Research Stations are located around the regions to support continuing research and production efforts. Many growers are in their 20-40’s and are highly motivated.

quality & care

Piemrak, pronounced Bi’em-rak in Thai, means ‘full of love’. The Piemrak Foundation is a registered Thai charity which Royal Thai Coffee likes to assist. The charity believes in Learning for Life and provides supported accommodation in Chiang Mai, for up to fourteen young hill tribe women who are keen to get a University education.

The Thai families who own these plantations work with their neighbours to harvest exceptional beans. Beans have been hand-picked above 1200 metres in the mountainous Lamphang province near Chiang Mai. Mountain farming coffee is a labour of love. It is time consuming, and labour intensive because of difficulty in planting, nurturing and harvesting. Hand picking improves quality and reduces waste. These high quality beans are unadulterated and reflect a far more green economic model for the small farming families of Thailand. The alternative is large firms and retailers buying from dependent mono-farmers who produce inferior beans.

Specialty beans like Piemrak are not found often in New Zealand because Thailand has a protected domestic market that favours internal sales. This is on the back of the King’s plan to replace the opium drug trade with coffee as a viable cash crop for impoverished hill-tribe family farmers. What it really means is better taste and feelings for Kiwi coffee lovers. Piemrak as a single sourced natural coffee is exceptional drinking and full of antioxidants.

We have personally visited where these beans were grown in the lush green secretive mountain valleys often hidden in the early morning with mountain mist. Mountain streams nourish and caress the soil. The altitude results in a slower growing cherry, assisted by the shade of taller fruit trees in the same fields. Shade reduces leaf burn, and trees encourage cooling breezes. Pests struggle to survive at this altitude. At lower heights, there are humidity issues. Higher, moisture contamination is reduced.

Growing at height where there is less oxygen makes the bean more acid and complex. It results in a denser, richer flavoured bean and the plants grow more slowly, taking longer to mature. Thai Arabica mountain coffee is a premium product for discerning coffee drinkers.