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Quality local tea/coffee beans?


Cheesekraft

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I am in desperate need, my tea and coffee rations are nearly depleted. I haven't really found any nice local teas, but have had plenty of good ones gifted on occasion from Chiang Rai. Does anybody have a good source, preferrably on Lazada, but anywhere I can order online? 

Cheers

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Civet coffee as you call it is from civets not monkeys.

Kopi luwak is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet.
Years ago good civet coffee was from wild civets now unfortunately the civets are farmed, in cages.   You can even visit a civet farm here in Thailand.
I doubt that farmed Kopi luwak even tastes the same as the wild coffee.
The wild civet chooses its own food from the wild, is 'hopefully' under less stress and thus comes a distinct flavour.    Farmed civet all eat the same industrially manufactured food, are under extreme stress as being closer to the wild than the present day farmed chicken.    If you are one who eats meat think of the difference in flavour of free range chicken meat and eggs compared with your usual supermarket brand.

Vietnam had the best and the cost per kilo of beans or your cup of coffee was expensive.
The "real" Kopi luwak is still to be found but unless I was a specialist in the trade I would not buy it for my own use.

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9 minutes ago, Speedo1968 said:

If anyone lives near Banphai in Khon Kaen province I can give you directions to a wonderful "real" coffee shop, the owner of which is number 9 in Thai coffee.    He produces his own roasted blends of coffee from countries including Thailand, Honduras, Guatemala etc.

What's the name of the shop?  Sounds interesting

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Loose leaf tea in MANY variety's is available at 6 bags for 100B in Mae Sai.

Quality blends are a little more costly.

I just grow my own coffee ,cocoa and now tea.Never have to leave the yard for a cupa.

I'll often add some Trung Nuen coffee from Vietnam for the flavor.  It can be purchased online from a Bangkok importer.   They carry quite a selection of Arabica /robusta blends.

Many small coffee roasters in the Chiang Rai and North.   A few better than the others in the roast.

Thing is they really know how to charge for it.   I can buy EXACTLY the same coffee in Canada at 1/2 the cost even after its been shipped 1/2 way round the world.    Strange that its so expensive right at the growers shop.

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One of the benefits of being back in the West. My local Winco supermarkets, vast places open 24 hours, sell 65 different fresh coffee beans. (I counted.) Having said that, I loved the Rimping Supermarkets in Chiang Mai. They are packed to the rafters with American and European goods. 

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51 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

My local Winco supermarkets, vast places open 24 hours, sell 65 different fresh coffee beans. (I counted.)

 

I guess you'd have to buy the supermarkets' entire stock to make a single cup of coffee.

 

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Thailand has really good Tea if you like Oolong and green tea. Black tea however I have not found any good tea during my 25 years here, not even on Internet. My daugher send good to me.

With regards to Coffee the have good quality coffee. It is expensive and mostly to dark roasted for me so I purchase green beans on lazada and roast and grind it my self. The coffe is then a quarter of the price. The extra cost for the grinder and roaster was paid by cheaper coffee long time ago.

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15 minutes ago, Sweet Swede said:

Thailand has really good Tea if you like Oolong and green tea. Black tea however I have not found any good tea during my 25 years here, not even on Internet. My daugher send good to me.

With regards to Coffee the have good quality coffee. It is expensive and mostly to dark roasted for me so I purchase green beans on lazada and roast and grind it my self. The coffe is then a quarter of the price. The extra cost for the grinder and roaster was paid by cheaper coffee long time ago.

I used to enjoy Saudi coffee. Green beans lightly roasted and ground, boiled and then added cardamon, cloves, ginger and saffron.
Dates to complement.

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On 9/27/2020 at 6:39 AM, Cheesekraft said:

I really enjoyed civet coffee when I tried it actually, but it is really rather expensive. I don't think it is from monkeys, either, but I am no expert! I will give Tetley a try, but I prefer loose leaf teas in general!  thanks 

Why don't you buy tea at Tesco Lotus? They have for example Tesco Earl Grey, Assam and Darjeeling. Big C has Heladiv, Pride of Ceylon. 100 bags. 

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Nothing good in the supermarkets, unfortunately. Royal Project tea (if you find it) and 3 Horses are drinkable, but I'd try to contact farmers/roasters who have online presence and ask them to send you their produce by post. The stuff I got from Lazada wasn't great either.

 

For example, Cottontree roastery in Chiang Mai has premium quality local beans at good price and they agreed to mail them to me.

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You could try this... 

 

Someone in Thailand figured to upscale and get elephants to mimic the Civit cats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ivory_Coffee

 

 

Tea: it very much depends what you like. 

- Regular wholesome ‘biscuit dipping tea’ - Yorkshire tea / PG Tips / Tetley

- More refined flavoursome tea ’Twinnings variations (various strengths and flavours) - English Breakfast, Assam, Celon, Darjeeling Earl Grey, Lady Grey.

 

Coffee: Buy beans from the supermarket, either grind them yourself or have the supermarket grind them for you. 

 

 

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  18 minutes ago, Letseng said:

 

For the simple reason Starbucks' coffee is really good (despite what all the haters say).


For the simple reason Starbucks' coffee is really good (despite at all the haters say

 

 

Each to their own but I have never had what I call a good coffee at Starbucks. My tastes have adapted a locally grown and roasted coffee which I am really enjoying. 220Baht/500gms.

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I order my coffee beans from Redcliff Coffee. They have their own plantations in Chiang Rai and when you order online, they roast your order freshly and send it immediately by EMS all over Thailand. You almost can't get fresher roasted coffee. The 100 % Arabica beans are really good and very reasonably priced. Look at their website:

https://www.redcliffcoffee.com/

Very fast delivery.

Enjoy

 

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Good black tea, Assam (Highland Tea) is available from various outlets like Rimping at promenada in Chiang Mai a few weeks ago and the Royal project shops. Also places like the hill tribe markets at Doi Pui. The Hillkoff company, on Chang Puak road in Chiang mai produces a terrific range of teas including English Breakfast and Ceylon.

I usually allow a brew timeof 6 minutes in a proper tea pot with these quality teas.

Waitress loose leaf black tea is also available at Festival Plaza Tops.

 

You can of course buy those expensive tea bags, but you are interested in proper grown up tea.

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4 hours ago, Carlos Primeros said:

I order my coffee beans from Redcliff Coffee. They have their own plantations in Chiang Rai and when you order online, they roast your order freshly and send it immediately by EMS all over Thailand. You almost can't get fresher roasted coffee. The 100 % Arabica beans are really good and very reasonably priced. Look at their website:

https://www.redcliffcoffee.com/

Very fast delivery.

Enjoy

Tried a few different Redcliff beans but was not really taken - have now found Hillkoft and have to say they have a bean for everyones taste https://hillkoff.tarad.com/products?cat_id=575649

 

 

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14 minutes ago, JoePai said:

Tried a few different Redcliff beans but was not really taken - have now found Hillkoft and have to say they have a bean for everyones taste https://hillkoff.tarad.com/products?cat_id=575649

Thanks for that.  I see they have Hillkoft Italian Espresso 500g for 220 baht.  This looks like a good place to get beans.

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