Thailand Doi Pangkhon Natural Light Roast

ROAST PROFILE // Light
MILLING PROCESS // Natural
VARIETALS: Catuai, Typica, Chiang Mai, SJ133
PRODUCERS: Merlaeku Family x Beanspire
CUPPING NOTES // Bursting with tropical fruit. Sweet with notes of dried mango and papaya. 
ALTITUDE // 1,250 - 1,450 masl
 
WHY WE LOVE THIS COFFEE // We believe this is the best season for Doi Pangkhon in the past 9 years. Beanspire is the exporter and miller of the Thai coffees Aero roasts. They have done a great job helping the producers and improving the quality year after year. 
This is a natural processed micro lot. Beanspire floated the cherries and laid them on bamboo raised beds in a one-inch layer. We continued to sort out under-ripe and fermented cherries throughout the drying process and the cherries were raked multiple times each day. After the cherries were dried, they're bagged to cure for two months before milling at our dry mill.
Beanspire has worked in this area for 8 years now. Doi Pangkhon, in Chiang Rai, has 300 households, each typically producing about 1-2 tons of parchment. In the past years, Beanspire worked with each house individually on their wet processing and bought their parchment before hulling and grading at the mill.  In 2017-2018 season, Beanspire invested in a wet mill, operated by a few of their partner producers, all belonging to the five Merlaeku brothers who are of Akha Hilltribe minority, so they had more control of the processing since they also bought cherries from outside the family as well. In the 2018-2019 season, Beanspire improved the mill by adding the roof, buying new pulpers and improving workflows. In the 2019-2020 harvest, they bought an electricity generator, built a cupping lab for the farmers, and laid new concentrate flooring for the mill. In the 2020-2021 harvest,  a new space was leased in the lowland so they could dry the coffee more efficiently. In the 2021-2022 harvest, Beanspire increased their production by 20%, meaning they expanded their drying space, whereas harvest rain reduced the crop overall for the country.
The elevation at Doi Pangkhon is from 1250-1450 meters above sea level. Note that the area is at 19 degrees north of the equator, which means that this elevation is really high (e.g. Colombia Narino is 1 degree north, Costa Rica Terrazu is 9 degree north so coffee can grow beyond 1600m there). The varietals here are a mixture of Catuai, Typica, Chiang Mai & SJ133. SJ133 is genetically identical to Costa Rica 95, while Chiang Mai is a local hybrid that is a cross between SL28 x Caturra x Hibrido de Timor.