Muantae : Chiang Mai, Thailand

Coffeehouses are mushrooming in Chiang Mai as drinking coffee at trendy places has become a fashionable lifestyle for its residents.

Apart from being a place to relax and enjoying hot and cold drinks, meeting friends or conducting business meetings, one can hardly go to their favourite coffeeshops with empty hands. As wireless internet services are provided, more and more working people, university students and expats are being spotted carrying their own computer notebooks to continue their work, check their mail and negotiating business at the coffeeshouses.

This lifestyle can be spotted along the Nimmanhemin Road which is Chiang Mai's centre of coffeehouses where many shops are well established and still attracting new comers. Other coffee houses are scattered near hotels, business areas, schools, walking streets and the Night bazaar as well as major shopping centers. Most coffeehouses here serve Thai coffees that are grown in the upper Northern provinces.

Muantae.com has talked to three well known coffeehouse owners of Wawee Coffee, Happy Hut and Perfect Blend. What these three have one thing in common is that they learnt and developed the coffee-making process and business by themselves.

Kraisit Foosuwan, managing director of Wawee Coffee Co., Ltd., 39, said that gourmet coffee drinking began to flourish in Chiang Mai about 5 years ago. However, Libernard coffeehouse situated on Chang Moi Road was a pioneer in introducing the coffee lifestyle to Chiang Mai townfolks 10 years ago, followed by Black Canyon Coffee into the market about 7 years ago.

A native of Chiang Mai, Kraisit proudly explained that Wawee Coffee uses northern Thai Arabica coffeee grown at Doi Chang in Tambon Wawee of Chiang Rai, Doi Inthanon and Doi Chiang Dao in Chiang Mai. Coffee cultivation at Doi Chiang Dao is Thai-Japanese crop-substitution project to solve the deforestation problem. He added that the coffee output of Doi Chang last year reached 600 tonnes and the Royal Project coffee production were over 400 tonnes with part of these green beans being exported to Taiwan and Korea.

Wawee Coffee Co., Ltd. has its own home roasting plant with a laboratory to ensure consistent flavours of dark, medium and light .He continued that "about 60% of his customers prefer iced coffee to 30% who enjoy hot coffee while the rest prefer other drink selections. Northern Thai coffee is proving to be very competitive to foreign brands. Kraisit started his coffeehouse business with 60,000 baht at Mae Sa Elephant Camp in 1996 but could operate for a short period only as the rental contract expired. A year later he opened the first Wawee Coffeehouse on Nimmanhemin Road until at present with his business successfully growing to five outlets worth over 8 million baht investment. Last year, Wawee used nine tons of coffee to serve their customers. The company has also moved into the next step of franchise sale, the first two franchised outlets to be opened on Nimmanhemin Road and at Suan Dok Hospital in the near future.

Wireless internet access service is also provided with the latest style computers, in order to keep in touch with current IT trends and culture.

Kraisit believes that the coffeehouse business has a promising future because more and more clients enjoy coffee and their ages are getting younger judging by the growing number of high school customers. He hopes to expand and promote Wawee Coffee brands to major airports and tourist destination cities including shopping centers in Bangkok.

Meanwhile, Chunyaporn Mantanakul, 31, a Lamphun entrepreneur who is co-owner of Happy Hut Coffeehouse on Nimmanhemin Road said to muantae that Chiang Mai people started the habit of going out for freshly blended coffee during recent years. Happy Hut uses northern Thai coffee of Doi Chiang Dao in Chiang Mai with the support of Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Agriculture.

She added that coffee trees of Doi Chiang Dao are under close care. Coffee plants are grown under larger trees and use natural fertilizers. Happy Hut controls its coffee quality by harvesting only completely red ripe cherry beans and roasts at Happy Hut's roasting plant situated at Ban San Na Meng in San Sai District of Chiang Mai. Happy Hut produces dark roasted coffee for cold drinks and medium roasted for hot coffee. Chunyaporn sells the roasted beans to coffeehouse owners in Phayao, ChiangRai, Chantaburi and Bangkok.

She noted that most of her coffeehouse customers are part of an easy going group who comes to enjoy coffee and either relax or meet their friends. Chunyaporn has received several serious enquiries to get Happy Hut franchised , but she and her partner, Wipat Toprasert are not quite ready to expand their business as they are still improving their quality and standards control. Chunyaporn and Wipat are pleased to serve and make their customers happy at their only Happy Hut Coffeehouse.

Another Chiang Mai native, Sarawut Ramingwong, 32, or "Kai" started his coffeeshop named "Perfect Blend, situated on Chang Klan Road five years ago. His business today includes wholesale, coffee and tea delivery to offices, banks and schools in the city area, and teaching his barista training courses.

As a straight forward and cheerful person, Kai said his success is not a bed of roses. His frequent travelling during his earlier work in the north eastern region inspired him to start a coffee business and Kai later on, seriously studied by himself from web sites, books and from his own experiments that finally developed into "Perfect Blend flavours".

Perfect Blend's casual and simple style coffeeshop offers take home, delivery to workplaces and tables to sit and watch Kai either busily making coffee or getting ready for his next round of coffee and tea delivery. He added that Perfect Blend uses northern Thai coffee grown at Doi Chang in Chaing Rai and they are roasted at Chiang Mai's San Pa Tong Roasting Plant. Kai noted that 85% of his daily sale is delivery and the rest are take home and in house sitting. Women who prefer iced coffee comprise 70% of his clients and the rest is male. Long stay Japanese and western resident expats are also regular customers.

Kai supplies his roasted coffee to coffeehouses in Bangkok, Lampang, Chonburi and Chiang Mai. Apart from coffee, his Thai tea from Chiang Rai is also popular with its unique flavour and aroma. Words of mouth among Kai's customers have partly helped Kai achieving his marketing strategies.

Images of Coffee Please

Last Updated ( Sunday, 11 March 2007 )

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