Sirinya - Honey
Impressions: black currant, sweet almonds, purple grape, cane sugar
Roast degree: (2.5/5)
Country: Thailand
District: Mae Suai District
Province: Chiang Rai
Variety: Bourbon, caturra, catimor
Process: Honey
Partner importer: Indochina Coffee
Farmers: Oil & Goh Chaosuwanwilai
For the third year now, we are pleased to bring back those delicious coffee from Oil and Goh!
Sirinya Coffee is a family-run specialty coffee farm, roastery, and coffee shop. They are based in the beautiful mountains of the Chiang Rai province, Thailand. Their project was born out of a commitment to the communities of Doi Chang, as well as stewardship of the land: they are constantly striving for excellence in all aspects of coffee, embodying true sustainability socially, economically and socially.
Goh and Oil are local leaders who share their knowledge and expertise in all aspects of the specialty coffee production, starting right from the beginning with the quality of the soil and organic farming methods through to the final processing. For the coffee farmers they work with, introducing these additional steps can elevate their coffee to specialty grade, and with it, commanding much higher prices and access to new markets.
Another beautiful iteration of this honey process. To us, the honey is always the most complex and balanced lot the Sirinya team produces.
There was a lot of dark purple fruit int his coffee, and to us, we had impressions of black currant and grapes.
The sweet almond with a hint of vanilla make this coffee very round and complex, and the sweetness reminded us of cane sugar.
| Method | Dose | Ratio | Time |
| Espresso | 18 g | 2.3:1 | 30-34 sec |
| Espresso with milk | 18g | 2:1 | 32-36 sec |
| Americano | 18 g | 2.3:1 | 30-34 sec |
|
V60/Origami |
23 g | 16.5:1 | 3:30-4:00 min |
|
Chemex & Batch Brew |
40-60 g | 16.5:1 | 5:00-5:30 min |
|
French Press |
18-25 g | 15.5:1 | 3:45 min steep time |
Farm: Sirinya
Farmers: Oil & Goh Chaosuwanwilai
Exporter: Sirinya
Importer: Indochina coffee (ICC)
Price we paid for the landed coffee at our roastery: 31.00CAD/kg
FOB price: 22.40CAD/kg
This is the price paid to Oil and Goh for everything between the purchase of fresh cherries up to the moment the coffee is safely at the port, ready for export, (processing, milling & drying coffee, bagging and shipping locally)
Farmgate price: between 45THB/kg for unsorted cherries (∼ 2.00CAD/kg)
This is what the farmers were paid for cherries, not green coffee. It'll cost the Sirinya Team 250THB to turn those cherries into green coffee ready for export, and often more due to those cherries not all being ripe.
There is a 90% import tax on green coffee in Thailand, meaning that it almost always too pricey for local roasters to import anything. That means that the internal demand for green coffee is very high, driving prices up (Thai roasters pay the same price FOB as the importer) and giving little incentive for farmers to focus heavily on quality since good prices are almost always assured.
But there is a new wave of young farmers who want to focus on very high quality and consistency. This is certainly the case when it comes to Sirinya.
And what is very encouraging to see is that local farmers focusing on quality often end up starting their own roasting operation. Having more producers take control of not only the green coffee, but also the roasted coffee, is a model we wish would be more easily doable at origin.