Thailand La Mai arrives!

A coffee that represents two very exciting passions arrived at our warehouse on Tuesday. Two tonnes of it!

[Skip the story - just tell me how it tastes!]

This coffee is the result of a brilliant project put together by Bright Hope World which helps a group of villages in Northern Thailand out of extreme poverty by teaching them to grow coffee. Find out more about the La Mai Coffee project here.

Not only that, but this coffee represents Ritual Coffee’s first shipment of coffee direct from the farmers. Followers of our blog will know that we’re very passionate about direct trade and this is the first fruits of our desire to source directly and make things fairer for coffee producers. We’re very proud of it!

The first thing we did was to crack open a bag and have a couple of roasts of it. When you’re roasting a completely unknown coffee – especially one from a country which isn’t known for its coffee – it’s really hard to know what to aim for. But La Mai behaved very well in the roaster and the first two roasts (both medium, one slightly darker than the other) turned out well.

Next it was time for cupping of the roasts:

Thailand La Mai cupping notes:

Light caramel, spices, vanilla; sweet, hint of orange, apple peel; grain, caramel, clean finish. Overall= light and sweet, with subtle malic (apple-like) acidity and hints of spices.

I was quite happy with how the beans roasted and cupped! They really show promise, and I’ve spend the rest of this week getting the roast profile just right. We’ll be releasing the coffee on Monday (taking orders right now).

What next?

I’m pleased to announce that we will be travelling to Thailand next February to visit the villages where this coffee was grown. This will coincide with the beginning of next year’s harvest, which means we will be able to see exactly what goes into producing the beans. We are excited to be able to see the methods of the farmers (and pickers, and processors) and we will be consulting with them on how to improve the over all quality of future crops.