Best of Thailand Coffee Competition

A quick trip to Thailand in November was a great introduction to new progress in Thai coffee quality!

With limited experience tasting Thai coffee, I was excited to update my antiquated knowledge with a trip to taste the “Best of Thailand”. The event, while not an an official Cup of ExcellenceThe Cup of Excellence is a competition held yearly in many coffee-producing countries, designed to highlight the very best coffees from each origin.: The Cup of Excellence (COE)... competition, was held as a precursor to see how a tasting event might benefit Thai coffee farmers.

While my own feelings on coffee competitions are mixed, there was a ton of energy and excitement from the participating farmers … which for me supersedes everything. If they see the benefit, as a way to get together as a community, share experiences, and promote their coffees, I’m all in to do my part.

For me the silver lining on this was how many people I met who were quite familiar with Sweet Maria’s, who had used our site to learn more about coffee, especially back in the dark days when there wasn’t 10 billion pictures of coffee cherryOriginally coffee literature referred to the fruit of the tree as a "berry" but in time it became a cherry. It is of course neither. Nor is the... online! (Not like you actually learn anything from a picture of coffee cherryEither a flavor in the coffee, or referring to the fruit of the coffee tree, which somewhat resembles a red cherry.: Either a flavor in the coffee, or... from 1 inch away).

This really was so rewarding for me personally, because I’ve put a lot of work into Sweet Maria’s for many years that was really beyond selling stuff, it was in the hopes that people would find it useful and start their own thing, be it micro-roastery or micro-farm or you name it. And in Thailand, to some small degree, this seems to have happened! I hope to visit again during harvest season, spend every day on farms in the mountains, and 0 days in the big city!