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After talking to all the international can be reinterpreted in each country’s
coffee professionals, we could not help but unique culture and environment. And as
wonder: where is coffee culture heading? Not everything will eventually be unified there-
surprisingly, all the professionals agree that fore more respect for each country’s indi-
coffee culture is more or less the same all viduality will be needed.
over the world – creating value for the guests With the current situation and faster
by serving good coffee, making someone’s digitalization, we tend to forget what makes
day and making more people fall in love with the whole economy and ecosystem work —
coffee. Traveling has broadened life radius genuine human connection. Coffee could be a
and social media has narrowed the distance lot of things: a drink, a taste, a dose of energy,
between countries. People can enjoy Flat a routine, a ritual, the face of acquaintances…
White at any café around the world. It also But wherever we go, it is always great to have
shows that the individual world of a barista a good old cappuccino, but it is also great to
is more expanded than ever, thanks to direct try new unexpected coffee drinks with local
trade, origin trips and the distance between twist that shows you a local culture and tells
the world’s baristas is getting you its story. This you can only experience
closer as we are all now just in one place and take a memory with
one click away. However, you. These memories are what
these new opportunities makes a great cup of coffee.

Thailand is the 3rd largest producer Thailand is a hot country, where tem-
of coffee in Asia. A whopping 99% of the perature can go up to 44.6 °C so drinks here
coffee produced in Thailand is Robusta should be able to refresh. Fiona Sutinee,
variety, it is produced in the south and Sale Director at UCC-K2 Thailand and the
used mostly in instant coffee products. WCE Representative & WCE Certified
The remaining 1% higher quality Arabica Judge, explained: “As in the past people
coffee is grown in the north on a much didn’t really know what was an espresso and
smaller scale. Recently, coffee production its usually too strong for most of locals, they
THAILAND
trends have begun to shift away from created “Es-Yen” (shorten from Espresso
Robusta to Arabica. Yen, what means iced espresso”), which is
People here are no strangers to cof- an espresso mixed with condense and/or
fee at all: 100 years ago, people would fresh milk and ice. As “Es-Yen” is a really
visit coffee shops regularly in the morn- a standard menu item, you may find it al-
ings as a place to socialize, talk politics, most everywhere!” Almost every drink in
read newspapers etc. Since there was no Thailand has to be ice cold due to its weath-
Special thanks to our
television, news traveled by word of er. That is how, among iced cappuccinos interviewees Clive Chan,
mouth up until wider access to the Inter- you will find second local favourite: O-Li- Fiona Sutinee, Maria Raylyan,
net in Thailand. The popularity of these ang. “It’s a dark roasted robusta coffee that Mark Uhlig and Jarno
Peräkylä, without whose
hangouts culturally also led to a love of was roasted with margarine or corn and
support we wouldn’t be able
consuming coffee as well! That’s some- other things. O-Liang means ‘Black-Ice’ in
to discover so many
thing that remains true to this day and you Chinese dialect and that is actually how we interesting aspects of global
can find coffee anywhere, even to take on started to consume coffee in Thailand in the coffee culture.
the go from small carts and in plastic bags past.,” shared Fiona. This dry, ground, mix-
and straws. These carts start selling very ture of O-Liang is then brewed in water,
BLACK ICE in the busy downtown areas and on often bine or layer with condensed milk and Photo / Tyler Nix
cooled, and served over ice. You can com-
early in the morning, parking themselves
very crowded streets. Between 4 a.m. and
evaporated milk for sweetness. These two
drinks show us Thai people’s love for sweet
10 a.m., these carts can sell anywhere from
300-500 cups. As you can guess, Thai
cold coffee that should be available every-

22 people really like their coffee! where and any time. 23