Back in June this year, Jia Min participated as an international jury in the Thailand Cup of Excellence (CoE) event held in Chiang Mai. Over 4 days, we cupped through many lots of outstanding coffees from the coffee producing regions in Northern Thailand, mainly situated in the “golden triangle” of Northern Thailand. Our experience with Thai coffee has been limited but during our team trip to Chiang Mai back in Jan 2024 we tasted and saw how much progress has taken place in the development of specialty coffee in Thailand. The cups we tasted back then showed so much promise that this country has in pushing the boundaries of quality. It is also very encouraging when we met a growing community of aspiring young producers who decided to continue coffee farming despite the risks and challenges of agriculture. Judging at this year’s CoE event further affirmed that Thailand not only has delicious food, but also delicious coffees! There were 21 lots of CoE winners (coffees scoring above 87 points) this year and when the time comes for the auction of the Thailand CoE coffees, Nylon decided to participate and show its support towards quality-driven coffee farmers that their hard work is being recognised. There were a few lots which really stood out for us during the competition, quite a few of Geisha variety and for non-Geishas, one particular cup shone loudly for us. It was a washed processed Typica from the Pakakayo Family - complex, clean and elegant. We love beautiful Geishas, but we also firmly believe in recognising the beauty of other varieties besides Geishas. Hence, we went all in for this Rank #11 lot of Typica and finally won the bid at a price of US$17.70/lb. The Pakakayo family is a close knitted community of 12 members. They work in groups and every member has a small plot of coffee farm. The family members work together from harvest to processing. They have invested in new equipment to perform the post harvest processing work. This is necessary as a big component of quality comes from how well the coffees are processed after picking. We are glad that we got this lot from them as we feel our contribution means more to small producers like the Pakakayo family. Also to share that they also won #21 with a dry/natural processed Typica. What an achievement! We hope they can continue with the good work and become a role model for many of the communities in their region. We have 60kg of this lot, so we will likely finish roasting this coffee end of November. Grab a bag of this Thai gem and let us know if you enjoy it as much as we do!