Mae Suaiแม่สรวย
Mandarin peel, brown sugar, a jasmine finish.
Chiang Rai · ThailandEst. 2569 BE
MEENมีน
Cafe & Roastery
Single-origin arabica, grown above 1,200 metres in the hills of Chiang Rai — and roasted a short walk from the trees it came from.
อาราบิก้าดอยสูง — highland arabicaRead on ↓
Grown high, roasted close.
Meen begins in Mae Suai, where coffee grows the slow way — under the shade of older trees, on slopes that catch the cold night air rolling off the ridgelines. The families we buy from pick each cherry by hand between November and March, when the hills smell of drying parchment and woodsmoke.
Most Thai coffee travels far from the hills before it meets a roaster. Ours doesn’t. We roast in small batches a short walk from the washing station, cupping every lot against the memory of the one before it. The distance from tree to roaster is measured in minutes, not freight.
What reaches your cup is a short supply chain and a long tradition: highland arabica the way the north has quietly grown it for forty years — we just refuse to let it leave home before it’s ready.
Three hills, three cups.
Wawiวาวี
Longan sweetness, toasted cashew, soft cocoa.
Pha Hiผาฮี้
Black cherry, tamarind, dark chocolate.
Each lot is roasted the week it’s ordered and rested three days before it leaves the roastery. When a hill’s harvest runs out, the coffee comes off this list until next season — that’s the deal with small lots.
Our morning ritual, written down.
Bloom
Pour 45 g of water and wait 45 seconds. Fresh roast will swell and sigh — that’s the carbon dioxide leaving so the water can do its work.
First pour
Spiral slowly out from the centre to 150 g. Keep the kettle low; the bed should rise, not churn.
Final pour
Top up to 250 g and let it draw down. Aim to finish at 2:45 — a little either side is fine. Grind coarser if it drags, finer if it races.
Drink it cooler than you think
The mandarin and longan notes hide above 70 degrees. Give the cup five minutes — the hills arrive as it cools.
One room, two counters.
The roastery and the café share a single room at the edge of Mae Suai town. On one side, the roaster runs on Tuesdays and the whole street knows it. On the other, a short counter serves whatever came off the drum that week — as espresso, as pour-over, or as โกปี๊ boran if you ask nicely.
There is no menu board, just three beans and someone happy to talk you through them. Sit by the window: on clear mornings you can see the hills the coffee came down from.