The Coffee Hills of the North

Thailand's arabica grows on the northern ridges, mostly between a thousand and fifteen hundred metres, on hill farms that took up coffee as a cash crop through royal development projects from the 1970s onward. Doi Chang and Doi Tung in Chiang Rai province are the names that travelled furthest, but Nan, Mae Hong Son and the hills west of Chiang Mai grow it too. Cherries ripen from November through February and are usually washed rather than dried in the fruit. The result is a soft, low-acid cup that takes milk well, and the cities below have built a serious cafe culture on it, with roasteries that name the farm, the elevation and the process without being asked.

What you actually see

• The ridge farms - arabica under shade trees above a thousand metres.
• The picking season - red cherries stripped by hand from November.
• The washing stations - pulping tanks and drying beds on the slope.
• City roasteries - single-origin northern beans roasted and poured below.

When to go

November to February is both the harvest and the only comfortable season for the mountain roads, which are steep, narrow and slow. Farms take visitors by arrangement rather than on a timetable, so call ahead or book through a Chiang Rai operator. Outside harvest there is machinery and drying ground to see, but no picking going on.

Honest expectations

Reaching the farms needs your own vehicle or a driver, and the last stretches are rough. Thai arabica is decent rather than remarkable, and prices in Chiang Mai cafes have caught up with anywhere else. Places at the popular viewpoints charge for the view rather than the cup, and bags sold at the farm gate are not always the farm's own.

Nearby

Chiang Rai's temples, the Mae Salong tea ridges and the Mae Kok valley.